View Rule

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposes to amend the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. These changes are designed to address ongoing right, humpback, and fin whale entanglements resulting in serious injury or mortality. In 2009, the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (Team) agreed on a schedule to develop conservation measures for reducing the risk of serious injury and mortality of large whales that become entangled in vertical lines. In an August 2012 American Lobster Biological Opinion, NMFS committed to publishing a proposed rule to address vertical line entanglements in 2013, and to publish a final rule by April 2014. Unlike the broad-scale management approach taken to address entanglement risks associated with groundlines (rope between trap/pots), the approach for the vertical line rulemaking will focus on reducing the risk of vertical line entanglements in finer-scale high impact areas. Using fishing gear characterization data and whale sightings per unit effort data, NMFS developed a model to determine the co-occurrence of fishing gear density and whale density to serve as a guide in the identification of these high risk areas. Potential measures include: expanding the gear marking scheme to require larger and more frequent marks along the buoy line; increasing the number of traps per trawl based on area fished and miles fished from shore in the northeast; establishing several closures in the northeast for trap/pot fisheries; modifying weak link and breaking strength requirements of buoy lines; and requiring the use of one buoy line with one trap in the southeast.