There has been a lot of talk about the transition to fishing sectors in the groundfish fishery in 2010, so I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about sectors and what has been happening to make sectors a reality.

Sectors are groups of commercial fishermen with qualifying fishing permits who enter into a voluntary contract with one another and agree to follow certain rules in order to fish their collective share of groundfish stocks.

Sectors were initiated several years ago by a group of Cape Cod fishermen who approached the New England Fishery Management Council with a request to form a fishing sector. A request for a second sector followed a couple of years later. These two successful sectors set the stage for where we are today.

As part of its most recent revision to its groundfish management plan (Amendment 16), the New England council is proposing adding up to 17 new sectors and revising the rules for the existing sectors in the fishery in 2010.

Much of the groundwork is now being laid in anticipation of sectors being fully functional by the start of the fishing year on May 1. So, over the past few months, fishermen, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service scientists and managers, and private organizations with an interest in fishing sectors have worked shoulder to shoulder to make this happen.

Through a series of successful workshops and ongoing dialogue, we are working with the fishing industry to design critical reporting and monitoring procedures to keep track of how much fish is caught, how much is discarded at sea, and to ensure the smooth transfer and exchange of catch information between NOAA Fisheries and participants in the sectors. Trained monitors, at-sea and on the docks, will collect information on fish and other species caught to complement our existing scientific research. This will enable us to effectively assess fish stock health and allow the council and sectors to determine appropriate catch levels for subsequent fishing years.

Another significant milestone in this process occurred Sept. 1, when 17 groups, representing about 49 percent of the groundfish federal permit holders and over 95 percent of the historic groundfish catch, submitted operations plans and other documents necessary for them to become established as sectors under Amendment 16. The operations plans, along with other regulations, will determine the way each sector will conduct its fishing and monitoring operations during the next fishing year.

Each sector submitted an environmental assessment, an analysis of the effects the sector's fishing activity is expected to have on the marine environment. NOAA's Fisheries Service provided ongoing technical support to these groups so they could submit these required documents on time.

Over the next several months, we will continue to work with sectors to make any needed revisions to these documents so all the requirements identified by the council under Amendment 16 and guiding laws are met.

In January 2010, there will be an opportunity for the public to comment on these operations plans when we publish the proposed rule regarding sectors in the Federal Register. We will consider all of the public comments and expect to publish a final rule to implement approved sector measures in the early spring.

If you are interested in learning more about sectors, I invite you to visit our sector Web page: http://www.nero.noaa.gov/sfd/sfdmultisector.html.

I welcome your comments. Please send them to me at public.concerns.groundfish@noaa.gov

Jim Balsiger is acting assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service.