Atlantic States MFC Summer Meeting Webinar

Date: 5 Aug

Time: 1:30pm - 3:00pm

Location: Virtual

Description:

Summer Meeting Webinar
August 2-5, 2021

Preliminary Agenda

The agenda is subject to change. Bulleted items represent the anticipated major issues to be discussed or acted upon at the meeting. The final agenda will include additional items and may revise the bulleted items provided below. The agenda reflects the current estimate of time required for scheduled Board meetings. The Commission may adjust this agenda in accordance with the actual duration of Board meetings. Interested parties should anticipate Boards starting earlier or later than indicated herein.

Monday, August 2
1:30 – 4:00 p.m. American Lobster Management Board
· Progress Report on Development of Draft Addendum XXVII on Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank Resiliency
· Review Workgroup Report on Vessel Tracking Devices in Federal Lobster and Jonah Crab Fisheries
· Consider Report on Available Data for Assessment, Data Limitations and Uncertainty, and Recommended Assessment Approaches for Jonah Crab
o Consider Initiation of a Benchmark Stock Assessment
· Consider Development of Management Strategy Evaluation of the American Lobster Fisheries

4:15 – 5:15 p.m. Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (ALWTRT) Update
· Update on Efforts to Collect Information for the ALWTRT to Develop Recommendations to Modify the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan to Reduce Risk to North Atlantic Right Whales in Coastwide Gillnet and Atlantic Mixed Species Trap Pot Fisheries, and Mid-Atlantic Lobster Fisheries

Tuesday, August 3
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board
· Consider Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance for 2020 Fishing Year
· Review Juvenile Abundance Index for the Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River
· Progress Report and Provide Feedback to Plan Development Team on Draft Amendment 7
· Review Background and Options for Addressing Commercial Quota Allocation in Future Management Document
· Consider Advisory Panel Nominations

12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch Break

1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Tautog Management Board
· Progress Report on Stock Assessment Update
· Review and Discuss Risk and Uncertainty Decision Tool for Tautog
· Consider Fishery Management Plan Review and State Compliance for 2020 Fishing Year
· Review Implementation of Commercial Tagging Program

3:15 – 5:15 p.m. Sciaenids Management Board
· Review Traffic Light Analysis (TLA) for Spot and Atlantic Croaker and Technical Committee Recommendations for Missing Data
· Review Technical Committee Memo with Recommendations for Black Drum TLA and Benchmark Stock Assessment
· Consider Atlantic Croaker and Red Drum Fishery Management Plan Reviews and State Compliance for 2020 Fishing Year
· Update on Red Drum Simulation Assessment
· Elect Vice-Chair

Wednesday, August 4
8:00 – 10:00 a.m. Executive Committee
· CARES “The Act” Update
· Discuss Commissioner Attendance and Public Participation at Future Meetings

10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board with Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council
· Review New York Appeal of Addendum XXXIII and Revise Black Sea Bass Commercial State-by-State Allocation Based on ISMFP Policy Board Directive Allocations from Section 3.1.1
· Consider Fishery Management Plan Reviews and State Compliance for the 2020 Fishing Year for Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass

12:15 – 1:15 p.m. Lunch Break

1:15 – 5:15 p.m. Atlantic Menhaden Management Board
· Review Data Needs for Spatially-Explicit Management of Atlantic Menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay
· Report from Work Group on Commercial Quota Re-allocation and Other Provisions of Amendment 3
· Consider Initiation of Addendum on Commercial Fishery Measures

Thursday, August 5
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Wind Energy Development Workshop

10:45 – 11:45 a.m. Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program Coordinating Council
· Consider Report from the Accountability Work Group

11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Lunch Break

12:15 – 2:45 p.m. Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board
· Presentation on Marine Recreational Information Program Estimates
· Report from the De Minimis Work Group
· Update on Research Set-Aside Committee
· Update on East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Committee Reports
o Habitat Committee
o Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership
o Assessment Science Committee
· Review Noncompliance Findings (if necessary)

2:45 – 3:00 p.m. Business Session
· Consider Final Approval of the Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment
· Consider Noncompliance Recommendations (if necessary)

Public Comment Guidelines

To provide a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings. Please note these guidelines have been modified to adapt to meetings via webinar:

For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide an opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the board chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.

For topics that are on the agenda, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the board.

For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.

In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).

1. Comments received 3 weeks prior to the start of the webinar (July 12) will be included in the briefing materials.
2. Comments received by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, July 20 will be included in the supplemental materials.
3. Comments received by 10:00 AM on Friday, July 30 will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting.

Comments should be submitted via email at comments@asmfc.org. All comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution.