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NOAA Fisheries announces the availability of a scoping document, a request for public comment, and an intent to prepare a Draft Amendment 12 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP).
What is Amendment 12?
The amendment will explore options related to the 2016 revised National Standards 1, 3, and 7 guidelines and other recent national policy directives as they relate to the management of Atlantic HMS. Issues being considered include:
- Reassessing current HMS fishery management plan objectives.
- Reviewing HMS standardized bycatch reporting methodology for certain HMS fisheries.
- Reviewing stock status determination criteria for internationally managed HMS.
- Potentially adopting allocation triggers for quota-managed species.
- Potentially revising the publication date of the annual HMS Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Report.
Who is Affected?
Amendment 12 could indirectly affect all HMS constituents. However, NOAA Fisheries does not expect to publish new regulations as a result of this action.
In the scoping document, NOAA Fisheries begins the process for developing Amendment 12 by presenting options for the various issues.
Scoping Webinar
We encourage participation in this process by anyone affected or otherwise interested in Atlantic HMS management. We request comment on the Notice of Intent to develop an amendment, the management options described in the scoping document, and other relevant options that are not included but would meet the purpose and need for this action.
We intend to host a public scoping webinar/conference call to solicit comments on this topic. Information on how to join are provided below.
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
2–4 p.m. Eastern
Conference line: 888-843-6167
Participant passcode: 3439062
WebEx
Public Comment
In addition to attending the webinar, you can submit comments online at the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal (search for “NOAA-NMFS-2019-0040”) or in writing to:
Rick Pearson
Highly Migratory Species Management Division
Office of Sustainable Fisheries (F/SF1)
National Marine Fisheries Service
263 13th Avenue South
Saint Petersburg, FL 33701
Comments are are due by November 4, 2019.
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