Greetings All,

NOAA Fisheries announced today that the 2012 butterfish ABC has been increased from 3,622 mt to 4,200 mt. The new ABC was recommended by the Council and it’s SSC in September after the industry requested a re-examination of the 2012 quota in light of the SSC’s higher butterfish ABC recommendation for 2013. The change is effective today (November 8, 2012), and comments will be accepted through 5 pm EST, November 23, 2012 on this interim final rule (see attached permit holder letter). The rule and supporting docs will be posted to: http://www.nero.noaa.gov/regs/ in the next day or two.

The Council also recommended and NMFS is implementing a small shift of butterfish from landings to the cap since it continues to appear that butterfish landings will not be fully utilized, and the small shift should not impact butterfish landings.

Together these measures should reduce the likelihood of a Nov/Dec 2012 closure of the longfin squid fishery due to the butterfish cap if the fleet continues to avoid butterfish (preliminary data suggests they have been doing this pretty well so far in Trimester 3). Also, I’ll note that NMFS NERO staff facilitated efficient and timely consideration of the Council’s recommendations on this matter so that these changes could be effective for this year.

All for now, thanks,
Jason

P.S. I also wanted to flag the Squid Trawl Network’s voluntary butterfish avoidance program that started in the last few months, and resulting butterfish avoidance maps, available at: http://squidtrawlnetwork.squarespace.com/project-summery/. There’s contact info there if folks want to get involved or spread the word to other fishermen.

P.P.S. A proposed rule for 2013 MSB specifications should be published very soon and I will flag that action when it publishes.

Jason Didden
jdidden@mafmc.org
www.mafmc.org
(302) 526-5254 (direct)
(302) 397-1131 (cell)
(302) 674-5399 (fax)