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 Scallop 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.

DATES:

This meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at 8:30 a.m.

ADDRESSES:

Meeting address: The meeting will be held at the Hilton Providence, 21 Atwells Avenue, Providence, RI 02903; phone: (401) 831-3900.

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 Scallop Committee will review Framework 32 (FW 32): specifically, a review of specifications alternatives in FW 32 and make final recommendations. FW 32 will set specifications including acceptable biological catch/annual catch limit (ABC/ACLs), days-at-sea (DAS), access area allocations for Limited Access (LA) and Limited Access General Category (LAGC), Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) management area, target-TAC for LAGC incidental catch and set-asides for the observer and research programs for fishing year 2020 and default specifications for fishing year 2021. They will also review options for mitigating impacts on Georges Bank yellowtail flounder and make final recommendations. The committee plans to discuss Amendment 21 and the group may be asked to review progress from the Plan Development Team on Committee tasking from the September 2019 Committee meeting. Other business may be discussed 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.