The following summary highlights Council actions and issues considered at the April 14-16, 2015 Council Meeting held in Long Branch, New Jersey.
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold six public hearings in January to gather public comments on the Deep Sea Corals Amendment to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). Hearings will be held January 12 – 20, 2015, and written comments will be accepted until January 28, 2015.
The Mid-Atlantic Council voted at its meeting last week to initiate an action that would protect unmanaged species of forage fish in the Mid-Atlantic.
Members of the public are invited to attend the Council’s next listening session at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10th to learn more about deep sea corals in the Mid-Atlantic. Guest speaker will be Dr. Martha Nizinski, a zoologist at the NOAA Fisheries National Systematics Lab
The following summary highlights Council actions and issues considered at the October 2014 Council Meeting held in Philadelphia, PA on October 7-9.
The National Science Foundation's (NFS) Coastal SEES program has awarded more than $15 million in funding for coastal sustainability projects, including a project led by Rutgers University to assess fishery adaptations to climate change.
NOAA has released the FY14 federal funding opportunity, Understanding Climate Impacts on Fish Stocks and Fisheries to Inform Sustainable Management.
NOAA has announced the selection of two sites in NOAA’s North Atlantic Region as the next Habitat Focus Areas under NOAA’s Habitat Blueprint. In the Mid-Atlantic, the agency will focus its habitat conservation and restoration efforts on the Choptank River complex in Maryland and Delaware.
Last week more than 70 fishery managers, scientists, policy makers, and other stakeholders convened in Washington, D.C. for the East Coast Climate Change and Fisheries Governance Workshop.
Understanding climate change and the associated impacts on the ocean environment has emerged as one of the major challenges facing fishery science and management. On February 11, 2014, the Council hosted a Climate Change and Fishery Science Workshop in New Bern, North Carolina. Presentations and audio recordings from the workshop are all available at the link below.
NOAA Fisheries announces that the Final biological opinion to assess the impact of seven Northeast fisheries on various species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act as either threatened or endangered is now available.
Nominations for the NMFS Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Advisory Panel will be accepted through December 6, 2013.
NOAA Fisheries Service has announced more than $6 million in funding for habitat restoration projects in Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Virginia to restore more than 11,000 acres of habitat, and open more than 200 stream miles for fish passage.
Climate change has resulted in shifts in where and at what depths many marine species are found. The leading explanation for these changes has been biological differences among species, but a new study suggests that the local climatic conditions are more likely causing these shifts.
This month the Chairmen of the three east coast fishery management councils signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help coordinate the protection of deep sea corals off the Atlantic coast of the United States from Maine to eastern Florida.
