The National Marine Fisheries Service has closed the entire Atlantic mackerel fishery in federal waters through the end of the year.
The service, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and informally known as NOAA Fisheries, has prohibited vessels from fishing for or landing more than 5,000 pounds of Atlantic mackerel per trip in or from federal waters through Dec. 31. Vessels may not land Atlantic mackerel more than once per calendar day, NOAA Fisheries officials said Thursday.
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The most recent management track assessment from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center found that the species remains overfished and overfishing increased slightly.
“We are implementing this closure to minimize additional catch for the remainder of the current fishing year,” officials said.
For more information, read the Federal Register notice and the permit holder bulletin posted on NOAA Fisheries’ website.
