The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Scientific and Statistical Committee to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

This meeting will be held on Friday, August 24, 2012 at 8:30 a.m.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Habitat Oversight Committee to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

This meeting will be held on Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 9:30 a.m.

The New England Fishery Management Council is in the process of preparing an Essential Fish Habitat Omnibus Amendment to the fishery management plans for Northeast multispecies, Atlantic sea scallop, monkfish, Atlantic herring, skates, Atlantic salmon, and Atlantic deep-sea red crab. The Council is seeking comments about removing the range of alternatives pertaining to deep-sea corals from this action and developing them as a separate omnibus amendment.

Written comments must be received on or before 5 p.m. e.s.t., August 27, 2012.

This final rule implements the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Commission) Recommendation 11-02, which maintains the U.S. North Atlantic swordfish base quota allocation, reduces the annual underharvest carryover from 50 to 25 percent of the base quota, establishes an quota transfer to Morocco for 2012 and 2013, and includes an alternative swordfish minimum size of 25-inches cleithrum to caudal keel (CK). This final rule also implements Recommendation 09-03 for South Atlantic swordfish. It also allows fishermen to remove the bill of the swordfish while still meeting the ``head-naturally-attached'' requirement for measuring swordfish using the lower jaw fork length minimum size, modifies and clarifies regulations regarding swordfish fishery season closures and the North Atlantic swordfish quota reserve category, and adjusts the North and South Atlantic swordfish quotas for the 2012 fishing year to account for 2011 underharvests and landings. This final rule could affect commercial and recreational fishermen who are fishing for swordfish in the Atlantic Ocean, including the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

John K. Bullard, former mayor of New Bedford, has been named the new Northeast Regional Administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Service, an appointment hailed by members of the local fishing industry. The regional administrator is responsible for overseeing federal fisheries from Canada to Cape Hatteras, N.C., and Bullard is replacing Patricia Kurkul who retired at the end of 2011.

NMFS is soliciting nominations to the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) as established by the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act (ATCA). NMFS is also soliciting nominations for technical advisors to the Advisory Committee's species working groups.

Nominations must be received by October 1, 2012. 

Currently NACOs Executive Director serves on the Advisory Committee and NACOs President serves as a Technical Advisor

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Monkfish Oversight Committee and Advisory Panel, in August, 2012, to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

This meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 9 a.m.

Statement from Dr. Richard Merrick, Chief Science Advisor for NOAA Fisheries

I am pleased to announce that William (Bill) Karp, Ph.D., has been named the new Science and Research Director for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Dr. Karp will plan, develop, and manage a multidisciplinary program of basic and applied research on the living marine resources of the Northeast Continental Shelf Ecosystem from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras, NC. He will lead NOAA Fisheries’ six northeastern labs and field stations located from Maine to Washington, D.C. The Northeast Center’s laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, is the birthplace of marine science in the United States and the site of the first federal conservation agency devoted to the protection, study, management, and restoration of fish.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has prepared an environmental assessment (EA) considering the reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts and socioeconomic effects of issuing renewable energy leases and subsequent site characterization activities (geophysical, geotechnical, archaeological, and biological surveys needed to develop specific project proposals on those leases) in an identified Wind Energy Area (WEA) on the OCS offshore Rhode Island (RI) and Massachusetts (MA). 

The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

 Robert E. Beal has been appointed the Acting Executive Director for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. He will serve in that capacity until an Executive Director has been selected by the Commission's Executive Committee. Bob Beal has been with the Commission for more than 15 years and has served as the Director for the Interstate Fishery Management Program for the past 10 years.