🎣Pacific Fishery Management Council Webinar on Fisheries, February 2025
The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Highly Migratory Species Advisory Subpanel (HMSAS) will hold a webinar, which is open to the public.
Learn More🌊Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Public Meeting Notice
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will hold a one day in-person meeting of its Ad Hoc Charter For-hire Data Collection Advisory Panel.
Learn More🦞Join the SEDAR 91 Assessment Webinar for Caribbean Spiny Lobster
The SEDAR 91 assessment of the U.S. Caribbean stock of Spiny Lobster will consist of a data scoping webinar, a data workshop, a series of assessment webinars, and a review workshop. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
Learn More🌊Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Meeting - February 2025
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold its third Recreational Initiative Working Group meeting in Tampa, FL.
Learn More🌊New England Fisheries Public Meeting on Climate Initiatives
The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public hybrid meeting of its Climate and Ecosystem Steering Committee to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This meeting will be held in- person with a webinar option. Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.
Learn More📊NOAA Notice on Economic Surveys for U.S. Commercial Fisheries
The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment on the proposed new information collection prior to the submission of the information collection request (ICR) to OMB for approval.
Learn More🦐Notice for SEDAR 87 Assessment Webinar on Gulf of Mexico Shrimp
The SEDAR 87 assessment process of Gulf of Mexico white, pink, and brown shrimp will consist of a Data Workshop, a series of assessment webinars, and a Review Workshop. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
Learn More🎣Nominations Open for Western Central Pacific Fisheries Advisory Committee
NMFS is soliciting nominations (which may include self- nominations) to the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section to the Permanent Advisory Committee (PAC) as established under the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention (WCPFC) Implementation Act (Act). The PAC, composed of individuals from groups concerned with the fisheries covered by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention (Convention), provides recommendations to the U.S. Commissioners to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (Commission) regarding the deliberations and decisions of the Commission.
Learn More🌊New Regulations for Navy Activities and Marine Mammal Protections
NMFS, upon request from the U.S. Navy (Navy), issues these regulations pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to govern the taking of marine mammals incidental to the training and testing activities conducted in the Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing (HSTT) Study Area between 2018 and 2025. In 2021, two separate U.S. Navy vessels struck unidentified large whales on two separate occasions, one whale in June 2021 and one whale in July 2021, in waters off Southern California. The takes by vessel strike of the two whales by the U.S. Navy were covered by the existing regulations and Letters of Authorization (LOAs), which authorize the U.S. Navy to take up to three large whales by serious injury or mortality by vessel strike between 2018 and 2025. The Navy reanalyzed the potential of vessel strike in the HSTT Study Area, including the recent strikes, and as a result, requested two additional takes of large whales by serious injury or mortality by vessel strike for the remainder of the current regulatory period. In May 2023, a U.S. Navy vessel struck a large whale in waters off Southern California. NMFS reanalyzed the potential for vessel strike based on new information, including the three strikes, and authorizes two additional takes of large whales by serious injury or mortality by vessel strike for the remainder of the current regulatory period (two takes in addition to the three takes authorized in the current regulations). The Navy's activities qualify as military readiness activities pursuant to the MMPA, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (2004 NDAA).
Learn More⚓Withdrawal of Proposed Rule on IUU Fishing Enforcement Impacts Businesses
NMFS formally withdraws a proposed rule on the Implementation of Provisions of the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act of 2015 and the Ensuring Access to Pacific Fisheries Act, which was published in the Federal Register on July 8, 2022. This proposed rule would have implemented certain provisions of the two acts and amended the definition of illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) fishing in the regulations that implement the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act (Moratorium Protection Act). After the proposed rule was issued, Congress amended the Moratorium Protection Act by the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (NDAA). NMFS has been developing a revised proposed rule in light of the NDAA to conform to the statutory changes, but does not have sufficient time to finalize the rule in this Administration.
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