New England Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting

AGENCY:

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION:

Notice; public meeting.

SUMMARY:

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Groundfish Advisory Panel 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.

DATES:

This meeting will be held on Monday, September 16, 2019 at 9 a.m.

ADDRESSES:

The meeting will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn, 100 Boardman Street, Boston, MA 02129; phone: (617) 567-6789.

Council address: New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council; telephone: (978) 465-0492.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Agenda

The Groundfish Advisory Panel will review the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and recommend preliminary preferred alternatives, as well as discuss draft alternatives focusing on (1) 2020 total allowable catches for U.S./Canada stocks of Eastern Georges Bank (GB) cod, Eastern GB haddock, and GB yellowtail flounder and (2) revisions to the GB cod Incidental Catch TAC to remove the allocation to the Closed Area I (CAI) Haddock Special Access Program (SAP). The Advisory Panel will also discuss a draft list of possible groundfish priorities for 2020 and will also receive an update on the Commercial Electronic Vessel Trip Reporting (eVTR) Omnibus Framework, which proposes to implement electronic VTRs for all vessels with commercial permits for species managed by the Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils. They will also make recommendations to the Groundfish Committee, and discuss other business as necessary.

Although non-emergency issues not contained in this agenda may come before this group for discussion, those issues may not be the subject of formal action during these meetings. Action will be restricted to those issues specifically listed in this notice and any issues arising after publication of this notice that require emergency action under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, provided the public has been notified of the Council's intent to take final action to address the emergency.

Special Accommodations

This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, at (978) 465-0492, at least 5 days prior to the meeting date. This meeting will be recorded. Consistent with 16 U.S.C. 1852, a copy of the recording is available upon request.

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.