Thanks to all of you who signed our petition to protect sensitive groundfish nursery areas from midwater trawlers. Significant progress was made when the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) voted to require all midwater trawlers to carry federal observers and prohibit the dumping of catch when accessing Closed Area I. The next step is for National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Regional Administrator, Patricia Kurkul, to pass the motion as a regulation.

Help us keep the momentum going by asking NMFS to turn the Council's recommendation into law.

Additionally, with the support of forward-thinking commercial fishing organizations, the NEFMC is developing a new approach called sectors to replace the current failed fishery management system. Sectors are community-based, fishermen-run co-ops that follow three simple guidelines:

• They implement science-based catch limits to promote rebuilding of fish populations and prevent overfishing;
• They incorporate monitoring so fishermen and regulators know exactly how much is being caught so that fishing stops once catch limits have been reached; and
• They are allocated their own share of the annual catch limit; while respecting catch limits, sectors provide fishermen with the flexibility to set their own fishing guidelines so they can run their businesses more efficiently and profitably.

On June 23-25, federal fisheries managers will vote on adopting sector management and annual catch limits for the groundfish fishery.

We need your help to make sure the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) know that the public supports sector management and annual catch limits that hold all fishermen accountable for their catch.

The comment period for this amendment ends on Monday, June 8th. Please act soon to ensure that your voice is heard!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

Groundfishermen and our shared groundfish resource deserve every protection they can get at this critical time. I urge you to quickly and completely implement the Council's requested action regarding Closed Area I. Specifically, please explicitly prohibit all herring vessels, including both vessels in a pair trawl team, from entering Closed Area I without a federal observer on board. And please explicitly prohibit any dumping of unsampled catch.

In addition, as we transition the region's groundfishery to sector-based management, I ask that you and your agency require all fishermen (not just sector participants) to follow science-based, annual catch limits and accountability measures. This will ensure that once a catch limit for a species is reached, fishing stops.

You and the Council have worked tirelessly to develop effective sector management in the New England groundfish fishery. I hope you will protect the investments of sector members and strengthen their ability to work together by ensuring all groundfish vessels are bound by a hard, annual catch limit by 2010.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
June 01, 2009