Details on upcoming June NEFMC Meeting

Jun 17

6 min read

The June meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council is being held in Mystic, CT at the Hilton Hotel and virtually (register). The meeting will be held from Tuesday, June, 23 - Thursday, June 25. Important updates are below, with the full agenda at the bottom of this post.

As a reminder, you can always contact your Maine Council Members if you have thoughts for them. Linked emails below:

Things I'm paying attention to... and so should you.

There's a lot on the agenda this round with several committees bringing forward actions the Council will vote to initiate. The clock is about to start on some multi-year decisions, and now is the window to pay attention before the details get locked in this fall.

Tuesday, June 23

11:00 am: Executive Order 14276 – Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness

This is the Council's ongoing work under the EO Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.

The Council is doing an evaluation of vessel baseline restrictions based upon Advisory Panel Feedback.
NOAA request asking the Council to consider rescinding the Atlantic herring Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) program.

1:30 pm: NEFSC Fishery Monitoring and Research Division

KB McArdle from the Science Center will provide an update of observer and at-sea monitoring programs, electronic monitoring, and the cooperative research that brings fishermen's data into the federal process. It's an informational update with no action. However, this ties into the Amendment 23 monitoring conversation within Groundfish on Wednesday.

2:30 pm: Atlantic Herring Committee Report

The Council will get a progress report on the 2026 herring action and may initiate the framework. No catch numbers get set this week, but here's what you should know.

New stock assessment: herring is overfished, but overfishing is not occurring. The stock is low (spawning biomass is sitting around 19% of its target), but it's not necessarily because of how hard the fleet is fishing. This is a draft assessment using a new model that needs to go through peer review. The numbers aren't final and are subject to change.
Catch has dropped from about 59,000 mt in 2018 to roughly 7,000 mt last year. The driver is years of poor recruitment and nobody has pinned down why.
The 2026 Action bundles three things: catch limits for 2027–2031, carryover of unharvested quota, and river herring/shad measures. The 2027–2031 numbers aren't set yet (SSC sets those in August) but the current 2027 limit was built off the older, rosier assessment, and the new science points lower, so don't be surprised if it comes down.
The Council will also discuss river herring and shad time-area closures being developed for Areas 1B, 2, and 3 so if you fish those areas, pay attention now. Final action is targeted for September.

6:00 pm: Council Public Outreach MSA 50th Annivesary

Grab a drink and chat with Council members, staffers, and other fishermen. This will be in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Wednesday, June 24

9:00 am: Scallop Committee Report

Two real decisions here.

There will be disucssion about the timing of FY2027 and FY2028 catch limits and development of sub-management areas in the Northern Gulf of Maine. There may need to be decisions made in September pending the conversation had here.
The Council will vote to approve Scallop RSA priorities for 2027–2028. If you fish federal and/or NGOM scallops, this is good to keep an eye on.

12:00 pm: Open Period for Public Comment

Your chance to put something in front of the Council that isn't otherwise on the agenda. Best practice is to sign up in person or by email to Alex Dunn (adunn@nefmc.org) to get on the remote commenter list.

1:30 pm: Groundfish Committee Report

The Council will be asked to initiate Framework 74, setting catch limits and management measures for FY2027–2031 across Gulf of Maine haddock, American plaice, witch flounder, pollock, Atlantic halibut, plus the Georges Bank cod, and haddock.
One flag worth knowing now, NOAA is projecting a Atlantic halibut overage for FY2025. If that triggers the accountability measure, it means no-retention of halibut for anyone holding a federal permit of any kind.
The Council will also get an overview of the Amendment 23 monitoring review as a 2027 priorities conversation. As a reminder, A23 was the management action that put a target of 100% onto the groundfish fishery. This is a review of the impact of that Amendment.

3:15 pm: Risk Policy Working Group

The Council is creating Risk Policy which could dramatically change how the stock assessment is used to set your catch limits.

So what is Risk Policy? As we all know, the ocean is far more dynamic than our management systems can keep up with and catch limits don't always reflect what you're actually seeing on the water. Risk Policy is the Council's attempt to build a more organized, transparent way to factor in the dynamic nature of fisheries. It scores things like the current health of a stock, recent recruitment trends, climate vulnerability, and the economic health of your fishery and community and then Council members weigh how much each of those should count. The result gives the Council a clearer signal on how conservative or flexible it can afford to be for a given stock at a given time.
What's on the docket this meeting? The voting Council members complete a global weighting exercise (in closed session), and this finalizes the Risk Policy and will impact catch limits for next season.
How this could work? Gulf of Maine Haddock Example: The stock is well above target, recruitment has been strong, and the fishery is healthy. Under current management, there's limited ability to reflect that reality in the catch advice. The number gets set off a rigid assessment without the more dynamic indicators Risk Policy is built to look at. A well-built Risk Policy is exactly what lets the Council say "this stock is doing great, let's fish it accordingly." That's why it's worth paying attention now, while the weighting that drives all of it is being locked in.

Risk Policy is new and complicated and it could lead to a big change. Hannah will go into a deeper dive after the decision are made during this meeting and share our understanding of what this could mean moving forward.

Thursday, April 16

9:00 am: Risk Policy Working Group (continued)

Continuation of Wednesday's discussion and weighting exercise results.

10:00 am: Small-Mesh Multispecies (Whiting) Committee Report

The Council will define the scope of the 2026 whiting action. They will discuss catch limits for 2027–2031, applying the new Risk Policy, and a handful of measures that matter if you're in this fishery:

Raising the northern red hake possession limit from 3,000 to 5,000 lbs (resource conditions have improved)
Bumping the southern red hake limit from 600 to 1,000 lbs, expanding exemption areas (southwest of Cultivator Shoals and west of Small-Mesh Area II)
Extending the raised footrope season into January and February
Aligning monkfish and lobster bycatch allowances with other fisheries.