The New England Fishery Management Council today begins a highly compressed five-day road trip of public hearings for comments on Amendment 16, a suite of modifications of the commercial fishing regulatory system.
The changes will include the introduction of sectors, voluntary groupings of fishermen who fish the same way for the same species from the same ports, as well as annual catch limits and accountability measures.
These innovations will replace the National Marine Fisheries Service's effort controls that have limited fishermen's days at sea, and, in many cases, counted one day at sea as two in an attempt to reduce the size of the catch.
The scheduled hearing begins tonight at 6 at the Sheraton Colonial in Wakefield, and that is the only hearing slated for Massachusetts.
A second hearing tomorrow, also at 6 p.m., is at the Sheraton Harborside in Portsmouth, N.H.
The council, which serves as an advisory panel and helps set NMFS regulatory policy, moves to Portland, Maine, on Thursday; to New London, Conn., on Monday; and then to South Kingstown, R.I., on Tuesday, June 2.
Times and locations can be found at the council Web site at www.nefmc.org, or by calling the council at 978-465-0492.
Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com
