NOAA Fisheries is publishing the Proposed List of Fisheries for 2024 per our responsibilities under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The List of Fisheries reflects new information on interactions between commercial fisheries and marine mammals.
NOAA is requesting public comments by October 13, 2023.
Public comments can be submitted via the Federal Register notice.
Request for Public Input on Aquaculture Fishery Descriptions
As information on risks to marine mammals from aquaculture remains limited, NMFS is soliciting public comment to inform how we evaluate the potential risk to marine mammals from aquaculture operations for future LOFs. Specifically, NOAA is requesting information on the following in both state and Federal waters in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific:
- Incidences of marine mammal interactions with aquaculture gear, including details of where and when these interactions occurred, the gear type(s) involved, and whether or not mortality and/or injury occurred.
- Gear characteristics, operational practices used ( e.g., anchoring systems, deterrence technologies to avoid interactions), and temporal and spatial variation in aquaculture operations.
- Practical ways of grouping different aquaculture gears into a single fishery, such as grouping according to regional differences and/or operational and/or gear characteristics ( e.g., if similar gears are used to farm shellfish and macroalgae, both target species should be listed under the same fishery).
- How integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (the cooperative cultivation of multiple organisms occupying different trophic levels) should be characterized. For example, whether multi-trophic aquaculture should be classified holistically as a separate fishery, or by the gear type that presents the highest risk amongst the gear types that are being used.
Recent Comments