The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will meet by webinar August 24-28, 2020. The Committee and Council Agendas, and meeting material are available on the Council Meeting Webpage.
You will be able to join the webinar at this link during the meeting. Public testimony will be held on Thursday beginning at 1:20 PM EDT. Details on how to successfully join the meeting and
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Additionally, the Gulf Council and NOAA Fisheries will host a Question and Answer Session with the public beginning at 4:30 PM, EDT on Wednesday, August 26, 2020. Details on how to join that session can be found here.
The Council will hear presentations on a number of interesting topics including: Shrimp logbooks, commercial logbooks, the Southeast For-Hire Electronic Reporting Program, and depredation by marine mammals. The following is a brief summary of some of the issues that will be discussed next week:
Red Drum and Coastal Migratory Pelagic Advisory Panel Member Selection
The Council will make final appointments to its Red Drum and Coastal Migratory Pelagic Advisory Panels. Advisory Panel members are appointed for a 3-year term.
Impacts of COVID-19
The Council plans to continue discussing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and may consider management changes to ease those impacts. The Council will continue to follow guidelines set by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act while considering temporary or long-term changes to regulations that may offset economic impacts from the pandemic.
Recommendations on Executive Order 13921
The President of the United States recently signed an Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth. The Executive Order aims to improve the competitiveness of our domestic seafood industry, put more Americans to work, and place more sustainably sourced and safe-to-eat seafood products on our families’ tables. Section 4 of the Executive Order, Removing Barriers to American Fishing, requires the Regional Fishery Management Councils to submit a prioritized list of recommended actions to reduce burdens on domestic fishing and to increase production within sustainable fisheries. The Council will review public input and is expected to provide a prioritized list of regulations for removal.
Status Determination Criteria
The Council must define a maximum sustainable yield (MSY), a maximum fishing mortality threshold (MFMT), a minimum stock size threshold (MSST), and an optimum yield (OY) for all managed stocks. These reference points are the basis for determining the health of each stock and are required under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and National Standard 1 guidelines. The Council will work on a public hearing draft of Reef Fish Amendment 48/Red Drum Amendment 5, which aims to define, and in some cases modify, existing status determination criteria for reef fish and red drum.
State and Federal Recreational Data Collection Calibrations
The Council will discuss calibration efforts involving recreational data collection programs. First, it will consider the Federal Marine Recreational Information Program’s (MRIP) transition to a new survey methodology, the Fishing Effort Survey (FES), and the resulting recreational data calibrations. The Council will also hear a summary of the recent Red Snapper MRIP and State Data Calibration Webinar. The Council will hear recommendations about how state survey data may be used in federal stock assessments and it will hear recommendations from its Scientific and Statistical Committee about how to calibrate results from each of the different surveys so they can be used in science and management.
Red Grouper Catch Limits and Sector Allocations
Photo: FWC
The Council will continue working on Reef Fish Amendment 53 which considers modifying red grouper commercial and recreational sector allocations and catch limits based on the results of the latest stock assessment (SEDAR 61). The assessment showed that the red grouper stock is lower than it has ever been. Additionally, the assessment used the new Marine Recreational Information Program’s (MRIP) calibrated Fishing Effort Survey landings and effort estimates, which increased the estimates of recreational harvest.
Commercial Individual Fishing Quota Programs
At this meeting, the Council will review a public hearing draft of amendment 36B which considers requiring individual fishing quota shareholder accounts to be associated with a commercial reef fish permit.
Lane Snapper
The most recent update assessment of lane snapper uses the new calibrated landings and effort data from the Marine Recreational Information Program Fishing Effort Survey and allows for a significant increase in the acceptable biological catch level. The Council will review guidance
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| Photo: Hubbard's Marina |
Yellowtail Snapper
The Council will hear a summary of the most recent yellowtail snapper stock assessment (SEDAR 64). The assessment was conducted for the entire Southeast which includes Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Council jurisdictions. Yellowtail is not experiencing overfishing and is not overfished. The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee plans to discuss appropriate methods for determining the Overfishing Limit and Acceptable Biological Catch levels for the yellowtail stock at a meeting in late September. The Council will consider updating the yellowtail snapper acceptable biological catch limits after it hears Overfishing Limit and Biological Catch recommendations from its Scientific and Statistical Committee.
Cobia
The Council will receive the results of the most recent Cobia stock assessment update. The update, which incorporates new recreational catch information from the MRIP Fishing Effort
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| Photo: Rosemary White |
