Tell Federal Fishery Managers to Cap Commercial River Herring and Shad Catch
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/d09e09..._herring_2.jpg Hello Bob:
Your comment can encourage federal fishery managers to set a 236 metric ton cap on river herring and shad catch in the commercial mackerel fishery.
Please submit your comment at this website by 4:30pm this Monday, February 10.
http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2013-0172-0001
When you contact the Fishery Managers, these points are most important:
Please implement the proposed rule as soon as possible to reduce the mortality of Alewife and Blueback herring and American Shad - these species, serve as vital food for numerous ocean predators from striped bass to seabirds. Well-monitored catch caps are important first steps until these ecologically, economically, and culturally important species are added as stocks to the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan (?MSB FMP?) and the related Atlantic Herring FMP, as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Adequate monitoring and bycatch avoidance measures are vital to ensuring that overfishing is prevented. Once this cap is in place, NOAA Fisheries and mackerel fishing vessels must monitor and report on the catch of river herring and shad in the fishery. Although monitoring and reporting requirements approved in Amendment 14 may prove beneficial, 100 percent observer coverage of midwater trawlers is necessary to adequately monitor and enforce catch limits, given this fleet?s fishing power and its demonstrated propensity for episodic and high-impact bycatch events. One-hundred percent observer coverage will also improve the accuracy and precision of data used to make management decisions, and is consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Full federal conservation and management measures must be put in place NOW. The record is clear that river herring and shad are in need of strong federal conservation and management. The proposed catch cap is a first step, but ultimately insufficient, to prevent further population declines. The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires all stocks in need of conservation and management to be added to an FMP.
To comply with applicable federal law and align federal conservation and management more closely with state moratoria and sustainable fishery plans, river herring and shad should be added as stocks to the FMPs for all of the fisheries that they are involved in, including the MSB FMP and Atlantic herring FMP.
Please submit your comment at this website by 4:30pm this Monday, 2/10/14:
http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2013-0172-0001
Thank you for speaking up!
Sincerely,
Captain Paul Eidman
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