The New England Fishery Management Council has approved a “problem statement” to guide its work on revisiting the Inshore Midwater Trawl Restricted Area that was overturned by a March 2022 court decision.

The council’s Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan included an exclusion zone that effectively pushed midwater operators farther offshore. The council voted during its June 27-29 meeting at Freeport, Maine to make it a “priority to take another look at the area and address issues raised by the court.”

In a statement this week council officials said they will:

• “Explore a range of management alternatives to minimize user conflicts, Including spatially and temporally explicit gear restrictions, area closures, and possession limits”; and 

• “Consider, but not be limited to, the spatial extent of the Midwater Trawl Restricted Area approved by the Council in Amendment 8, with a particular focus on areas not already subject to seasonal closures to midwater trawling.” 

“The purpose of this action is to develop and implement management actions designed to attain optimum yield and improve the conservation status of Atlantic herring by accounting for its critically important role as a forage species in the ecosystem and minimizing user conflicts created by competing interests on the herring resource between the directed herring fishery and other important user groups, including commercial and recreational fisheries, whale watching, and tourism.

“This Council will explore a range of management alternatives to minimize user conflicts, including spatially and temporally explicit gear restrictions, area closures, and possession limits.

"The geographic scope of potential management measures will consider, but not be limited to, the spatial extent of the Midwater Trawl Restricted Area approved by the Council in Amendment 8, with a particular focus on areas not already subject to seasonal closures to midwater trawling.”