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The New England Fishery Management Council initiated this action in December 2020.  This action will implement a new rebuilding plan for Atlantic herring and modify accountability measure (AM) catch threshold triggers when a herring annual catch limit (ACL) or Management Area sub-ACL is exceeded.  The Northeast Fisheries Science Center completed the most recent assessment of the Atlantic herring stock in June 2020.  The assessment indicated that the stock is not subject to overfishing, but is now overfished.  Based on these findings, the Regional Administrator notified the Council in October 2020 that it must develop a new rebuilding plan for Atlantic herring.  The deadline to implement this rebuilding plan is October 13, 2022.  This action will satisfy the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requirement for the Council to prepare and implement a rebuilding plan within 2 years of being notified of the change in herring stock status.  By modifying AM triggers, this action seeks to provide additional flexibility for herring fishery participants to achieve optimum yield and minimize the economic impacts of overage payback while still preventing overfishing of individual stock components.  The objectives of this action are to meet the overall goal of the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan of managing the Atlantic herring fishery at long-term sustainable levels consistent with the National Standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.