New England Set Gear Fishermen – Final Rule – Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. Are you Affected?
NMFS issues this final rule to amend the regulations implementing the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction. This rule revises the management measures for reducing the incidental mortality and serious injury to the North Atlantic right whale, humpback whale, and fin whale in commercial trap/pot and gillnet fisheries to further the goals of the MMPA, and the ESA. . Read final rule in the Federal Register 18:49
” entanglements from specific fisheries and areas are rarely documented. Therefore, NMFS developed a model to help identify the relative likelihood of an entanglement by time and area.”
in other words they aren’t sure if this is the right area to close, but let’s close it anyway. Peter Shelley says it’s close enough. This is going to wipe out a large chunk of small lobster boats, which is most likely the only goal of this new closure.
“a limited number of small vessels are most at risk when comparing annual compliance costs to average per-vessel revenues. As a result, harvest levels are unlikely to change and related industries (e.g., seafood processing) are not likely to be affected.”
AKA so it’s a good thing to wipe out those little guys! Won’t cost too many processing jobs that way. What compassion!