South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
Members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold their next meeting on December 4-8, 2023 at the Beaufort Hotel in Beaufort, NC. During the week-long meeting, the Council will convene meetings of the following committees: Mackerel Cobia, Dolphin Wahoo, Snapper Grouper, Citizen Science, Habitat and Ecosystem, and SEDAR (Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review). There will also be meetings of the Full Council.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) is soliciting scientists interested in serving on its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) the Socio-Economic Panel. Membership is open to any qualified scientist, regardless of affiliation or geographic location. The Council will review applications at its December 2023 meeting. Applications received by Monday, November 27, 2023 will be submitted to the Council for consideration.
Federally permitted commercial fishermen are required to report information about their individual fishing trips and have been doing so through the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fishery Science Center’s Coastal Fisheries Logbook Program since the program began in 1990.
Members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council acknowledged the life-time work of Council staff member Roger Pugliese with the SAFMC 2023 Award of Excellence during its meeting this week in Charleston, South Carolina.
Each year, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council recognizes the importance of law enforcement in federal fisheries management by presenting the Law Enforcement Officer of the Year award. This year, two nominees were selected to receive the award. Private First-Class Jason Dozier with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Game Warden First Class Matt Tsiklistas with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources were presented the 2022 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year award during the Council’s September meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is scheduled to meet at the Town and Country Inn in Charleston, South Carolina the week of September 11th.
Over the past two years, marine fishery management organizations along the U.S. East Coast have been exploring governance and management issues related to climate change and fishery stock distributions. This effort recognizes the profound impact that climate change is having on our ocean ecosystems and coastlines and the need to plan for how fishery management organizations and coastal communities can best adapt to these changes in a thoughtful and deliberate way.
The Council will hold a series of public hearings via webinar next week for proposed measures affecting reporting requirements for federally-permitted commercial fishermen. The Comprehensive Amendment Addressing Electronic Reporting for Commercial Vessels is being developed collaboratively with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.
The Council’s Seminar Series continues in July with a presentation from Gulf of Maine Research Institute staff entitled “Simulated larval dispersal of snapper-grouper species to evaluate the efficacy of spawning Special Management Zones”. The presentation involves five Spawning Special Management Zones (SMZs) designated off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is considering modifying catch levels for Atlantic Spanish Mackerel following the latest stock assessment indicating the stock is neither overfished nor undergoing overfishing. The decision was made as Council members convened this week in St. Augustine, Florida to address a wide variety of federal fishery management issues.
