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March 16, 2001 For further information, contact Charles Lesser, Fisheries, 302-739-3441 Public Hearing on Addendum to Horseshoe Crab Interstate Fishery Management Plan Set for March 27The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, in cooperation with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, will conduct a public hearing on Tuesday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m. on Addendum II to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Horseshoe Crab. The hearing will be held in the Department Secretary's'conference room, 89 Kings Highway, Dover. The addendum would provide for the voluntary transfer of harvest quotas between states to alleviate bait shortages in the conch and eel pot fisheries on a biologically responsible basis. The draft addendum identifies a series of management options and procedures for reviewing and approving state-to-state quota transfers. According to Charles Lesser, DNREC's Division of Fish and Wildlife Fisheries administrator, the management plan currently has no provisions for quota transfers and consideration of them is complicated by recent findings that the horseshoe crab population along the East Coast of the United States may be comprised of more than one discrete population. Transferring quota from a region with a large horseshoe crab population to one with a small population could threaten the smaller stock. For this reason, Lesser explained, quota transfers should occur within a population and must be predicated on a stock delineation and estimates of stock size. Quota transfers should also be evaluated for their impact on competing uses, especially shorebird populations and the biomedical industry. The draft addendum includes procedures for the Technical Committee and Management Board to review and approve quota transfers on a case-by-case basis. A proposal is that each request for quota transfer be evaluated based on the amount of each quota transfer, stock delineation, and the impacts of the quota transfer on the horseshoe crab population, migratory shorebirds and the biomedical industry. The framework for managing horseshoe crabs along the Atlantic coast was approved in October 1998 with the adoption of the Interstate Horseshoe Crab Fishery Management Plan. This management plan required the States of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey to maintain their current horseshoe crab harvest reduction strategies, and required all states to implement certain horseshoe crab research and monitoring programs in an effort to facilitate future management decisions. In February 2000, the Horseshoe Crab Management Board approved Addendum I to the management plan. The addendum established a state-by-state cap on horseshoe crab bait landings at 25 percent below the reference period landings beginning in 2000, and established de minimis criteria for those states with a limited horseshoe crab fishery. -30- |
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