NMFS Announces New Monkfish Regulations

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has adopted new measures for monkfish fishing. NFMS, by way of the the Federal Register of Friday, July 18, 2014, released a new final rule regarding Framework Adjustment 8 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan. The rule takes effect immediately.

The Monkfish fishery is manged by The New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management councils. The councils identify the fishery as ranging from from the Gulf of Main to North Carolina. The new rule increases the days-at-sea from 40 to 46 and landing limits.

Based on assessments conducted last year, the council initially indicated that changes were not necessary for this year’s limit. However, data shows that in recent monkfish seasons, the monkfish fishery has “failed to achieve optimum yield (OY) because it has not fully harvested the Annual catch target (ACT) specified for each year.” The new rules were proposed in May in order to allocate more days at sea and landings so that catch targets might be more closely met. The new rule also clarify and correct ambiguities, errors, and ambiguities of the original rules.

As to why catch limits have not been reached in recent seasons, NMFS does not have specific answers. The Monkfish Plan Development Team identifies several possible factors, including the decline in popularity of monkfish as a food fish, which is likely attributable to its high market costs. Likewise, generally speaking, monkfish are often caught as incidental catch when targeting other species rather than as a specifically-targeted species.

The new rule is being retroactively administered to the May 1st monkfish season. Monkfish already harvested will be deducted from the totals. NMFS received only two comments to its proposed rules and made no changes from the originally proposed rules. NMFS notes that it is imposing no new regulatory burdens on anyone.

NMFS waived the normal 30-day delay in implementing new rules, citing the public interest.

If you have any questions, contact Fishery Policy Analyst Douglas Christel at (978) 281-9141, fax (978) 281-9135.