Councils Speed Ahead with Alternative Gear Marking Proposals

The New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, in conjunction with the NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO), are considering changes to regulations to allow alternative surface markings for fixed gear fisheries. If approved by the two Councils and GARFO, the regulatory changes would allow the use of ropeless gear, which is gear without a persistent buoy line, in federal waters without obtaining an exempted fishing permit. The Councils would make changes to several Fishery Management Plans, and GARFO would change federal lobster regulations, to align with recent — and potential future changes — to the federal Whale Plan regulations allowing ropeless gear.

Allowing alternative surface marking systems that do not require vertical lines in the water could make areas now closed to fishing available to fishermen using those systems, said Allison Murphy, GARFO, at a webinar organized by the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) in late August. “It is intended to provide flexibility, to open areas otherwise closed. Areas now function as closures because no vertical lines are permitted during specific times of the year. Revising the regulations would allow for digital gear marking as well as existing gear,” she said.

In order to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (ALWTRP) closed certain areas to fishing at times of the year when right whales were thought to be present. Currently these areas include LMA 1 area off the coast of Maine, closed from October 1 through January 31; Massachusetts Restricted Area and Massachusetts Wedge Area, closed from February 1 through April 30; Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket area, closed from February 1 to April 30.

The older restricted areas were modified from seasonal fishing closures to seasonal vertical line closures, and the two newest restricted areas are seasonally closed to fishing for lobster/Jonah crab with persistent buoy lines.

“Right now you need an Exempted Fishing Permit to use alternative on-demand gear to fish in federal waters,” Murphy said. “It takes time to get that permit. It requires public comment. It works on a small-scale basis. But to use alternative gear broadly we need to revise the regulations.”

The New England Fishery Management Council in 2024 determined that, “Revising these regulations could enable Council-managed, fixed gear fisheries to adapt to existing and new seasonal buoy line closures using on-demand gear. At the November 2024 Northeast Region Coordinating Council meeting, GARFO agreed to lead the development of a framework action to consider such revisions.”

Currently the New England Council is considering four options related to alternative gear marking changes. The first would be the status quo, changing nothing. The second would allow alternative gear marking throughout federal waters from Maine to North Carolina. The third would limit alternative gear marking to seasonal closure areas only when the closure is in place. The fourth would allow alternative gear marking in those seasonal closure areas throughout the year.

The revised regulations would likely apply to the FMPs for black sea bass, monkfish, Northeast multispecies1, and red crab, which are individually or jointly managed by the two Councils. The revisions would also “modify federal lobster regulations through the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act,” Murphy said.

“NOAA has decided to apply the decisions of the New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils to the lobster fishery, which is managed under the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act,” explained Megan Ware, DMR director of external affairs. “They have indicated they plan to do this to have uniformity in the gear marking regulations across fisheries and because the ASMFC fishery management plan for lobster does not specifically include gear marking requirements.”

The New England Council will take final action at its September meeting; the Mid-Atlantic Council will do so at its October meeting. Rulemaking will occur in 2026.

During the August webinar, several lobstermen voiced their concerns about the core idea of allowing on-demand gear to be used.

John Drouin, chairman of Lobster Zone A Council, wanted to know if user groups had approached GARFO to consider alternative gear marking changes or if the Councils had initiated the action. “The Councils took it up last fall, in order to get ahead of the ball in terms of future federal rules [related to right whales, due in 2028],” Murphy said.

“You are changing the landscape by requiring on-demand gear. If I want to fish in an area I will have to have the device to see if there’s on-demand gear in the water, if others are using it,” Drouin said. “Zone A is not in favor of this. This is a burden on fishermen. You are going too fast, too quickly.”

Jacob Thompson, Lobster Zone C Council chair, said, “I don’t see how this is going to work. Wait until the rulemaking actually comes for on-demand gear. No one wants to start seeing changes yet.” Ginny Olsen, Maine Lobster Union, added, “It’s difficult to go into rulemaking when you don’t know how you are going to implement it.”

The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission Lobster Board recently agreed to send NOAA and the Councils a letter urging them to delay final votes on the rules until receive input from the lobstering industry and alternative gear developers. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has opposed these changes due to the timing and “near-total lack of outreach to the lobster industry throughout the development of this framework.”

“I think the speed and the timing of it seems very premature,” said Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Carl Wilson in an article in the Portland Press Herald. “This is potentially a seismic shift in how fisheries would conduct business that needs a deliberative and step-wise approach before we jump right into saying ‘we can do this anywhere, anytime.’”