New England Council to Take up Issue of New Bedford Sectors IX and VII on Wednesday
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton April 17, 2018
The New England Fisheries Management Council will take up the issue of the operations plans submitted by sector IX and sector VII, which represent the majority of groundfish vessels in New Bedford.
Many of these vessels, which were formerly members of Sector IX, have been prohibited from fishing until Sector IX came up with an acceptable mechanism to account for the illegal fishing and overages done by vessels belonging to Carlos Rafael that were in the sector.
The sector was strongly criticized by NMFS for failure to have an adequate plan to account for overharvests, to do proper record keeping, and to then take necessary steps to payback fish that was illegally harvested.
Instead of coming to an agreement, on the last day for filing sector membership, the vessels in Sector IX decamped en masse to Sector VII,..
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