New England Fishery Management Council; Public Meetings

AGENCY:

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

ACTION:

Notice of public meetings.

SUMMARY:

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Capacity Committee in April, 2000. Recommendations from the committee will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

DATES:

The meeting will be held on April 19, 2000, at 10:00 a.m.

ADDRESSES:

The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn, 300 Woodbury Avenue, Portsmouth, NH 03801; telephone: (603) 431-8000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paul J. Howard, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council; (978) 465-04922.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Committee will continue its exploration of fishing capacity issues. The Committee will discuss two proposals that may help alleviate problems caused by excess fishing capacity. These two proposals would allow the transfer of permits under certain conditions. The Committee will also discuss other ways to reduce fishing capacity, such as vessel buybacks, allowing vessels to defer fishing effort until stocks rebuild, or combinations of these and other options. The Committee will receive a qualitative report on fisheries in New England that have excessive fishing capacity.

Although non-emergency issues not contained in this agenda may come before this Council for discussion, those issues may not be the subject of formal Council action during this meeting. Council 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 Paul J. Howard (see ADDRESSES) at least 5 days prior to the meeting dates.