Document
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act Provisions; General Provisions for Domestic Fisheries; Application for Exempted Fishing Permits
The Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary determination that an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) applica...
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The applicant submitted a complete application for an EFP to conduct commercial fishing activities that the regulations would otherwise restrict. This EFP would exempt the participating vessels from the following Federal regulations:
Table 1—Requested Exemptions
| CFR Citation |
Regulation |
Need for exemption |
| 50 CFR 697.21(c) |
Gear specification requirements |
To allow for closed escape vents and smaller trap mesh and entrance heads. |
| § 697.19(a), (b), (c), and (d) |
Trap limit requirements for Areas 1-4 |
To allow for 3 additional traps per fishing vessel, for a total of up to 60 additional traps. |
| § 697.19(j) |
Trap tag requirements |
To allow for the use of untagged traps (though each modified trap will have the participating fisherman's identification attached). |
| § 697.20(a), (d), (g), (h)(1), and (h)(2) |
Possession restrictions |
To allow for onboard biological sampling of undersized, v-notched, and egg-bearing lobsters and undersized and egg-bearing Jonah crabs. |
Table 2—Project Summary
| Project title |
A Collaborative Fishing Vessel Approach to Addressing Data Needs for the American Lobster and Jonah Crab Fisheries. |
| Project start |
07/01/2026. |
| Project end |
05/31/2027. |
| Project objectives |
To continue to provide distribution, abundance, and biological data on juvenile lobsters and Jonah crabs from times and areas with low coverage from traditional surveys. |
| Project location |
Lobster Management Areas (LMA) 1, 2, 3, and 4. |
| Number of vessels |
Up to 20. |
| Number of trips |
Up to 52 per inshore vessel; up to 36 per offshore vessel (up to 832 total). |
| Trip duration (days) |
Up to 4. |
| Total number of days |
Up to 3,328. |
| Gear type(s) |
Trap. |
| Number of tows or sets |
Up to 2,496. |
| Duration of tows or sets |
7 days inshore; 10 days offshore. |
Project Narrative
This project would continue an ongoing effort to collect data on juvenile lobster and Jonah crab abundance and distribution in areas and times of the year with low or no coverage by traditional surveys. To date, this project has collected data from over 287,000 lobsters and 156,000 Jonah crabs, as well as coupled bottom water temperatures from the Gulf of Maine to the Mid-Atlantic.
The project would include up to 7 inshore vessels (LMA 2), and up to 13 offshore vessels (LMAs 1, 3, and 4). Each vessel would fish 3 modified ventless traps designed to capture juvenile lobsters, totaling up to 60 modified traps. Vessels may fish all three ventless traps on one trawl, or may spread them across two or three trawls. The modified traps would adhere to the standard coastwide survey gear for lobster and Jonah crab set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and would be fished within standard Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan-compliant trawls.
This study would take place during regular fishing activity of the participating vessels, but catch from modified traps would remain separate from that of standard gear. Operators would collect data on size, sex, presence of eggs, and shell hardness for lobsters and Jonah crabs, and v-notch and shell disease for lobsters. Operators would return all specimens from modified gear to the ocean once sampling was complete.
The study is designed to inform management by addressing questions about changing reproduction and recruitment dynamics of lobster and to develop a foundation of knowledge for the data-deficient Jonah crab fishery. CFRF would share data with the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, ASMFC, and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management every 6 months.
If approved, the applicant may request minor modifications and extensions to the EFP throughout the year. EFP modifications and extensions may be granted without further notice if they are deemed essential to facilitate completion of the proposed research and have minimal impacts that do not change the scope or impact of the initially approved EFP request. Any fishing activity conducted outside the scope of the exempted fishing activity would be prohibited.
Authority:16 U.S.C. 1801
et seq.
Dated: April 30, 2026.
Kelly Denit,
Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.