Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office; Public Hearings
NMFS will hold five public hearings in November and December 2026 to solicit input on a potential Secretarial amendment to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. If t...
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION:
Notice of public hearings and comment period.
SUMMARY:
NMFS will hold five public hearings in November and December 2026 to solicit input on a potential Secretarial amendment to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. If the Secretary of Commerce determines that such an amendment is warranted, the action would consider allowing permit stacking in the limited access scallop fleet. NMFS is soliciting written scoping comments on this topic.
DATES:
Public hearing will be held in November and December 2026. Comments are due on January 4, 2027. See
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
for specific hearing dates.
ADDRESSES:
See
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
for hearing addresses.
You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2026-3136, by any of the following methods:
Electronic Submission:
Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Visit
www.regulations.gov
and type NOAA-NMFS-2026-3136 in the Search box. Click on the “Comment” icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments.
Mail:
Submit written comments to Emily Keiley, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930.
Instructions:
Comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on
www.regulations.gov
without change. All personal identifying information (
e.g.,
name, address), confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter “N/A” in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous).
Hearing Locations—NMFS will hold two online webinars and three in-person public hearings:
1.
Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.;
Hilton Garden Inn Boston Logan Airport, 100 Boardman St., Boston, MA 02128; phone (617) 567-6789. Note: The Scoping Meeting will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Joint Scallop Committee and Advisory Panel Meeting.
5.
Monday, December 14, 2026, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.;
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology East, 836 South Rodney French Blvd., New Bedford, MA 02744; phone: (508) 999-8193.
Background
Based on comments received in response to Executive Order 14276, the Secretary of Commerce is considering whether to develop an amendment to the Atlantic Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to allow permit stacking in the limited access scallop fishery. The publication of this
Federal Register
notice does not commit the Secretary to take action at this time, but is intended to notify the public of the opportunity to be heard and that NMFS, on behalf of the Secretary, is soliciting feedback to inform the Secretary's decision whether to develop an amendment for permit stacking.
The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) established the Limited Access component of the sea scallop fishery through Amendment 4 (1994) to the Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP. This action was part of an effort control program designed to reduce fishing mortality and rebuild the scallop resource in what was, at that time, an overfished stock. Amendment 4 included measures designed to limit increases in a vessel's fishing power and reduce fishing pressure, such as limiting fishing time through days-at-sea (DAS) management, crew restrictions, gear restrictions, reporting requirements, and vessel upgrade restrictions.
Excess capacity remains in the limited access scallop fishery; that is, the capacity of individual vessels and the fleet as a whole is greater than what is needed to efficiently harvest sustainable levels of catch. Since the limited access program was implemented in 1994, the annual allocation of DAS has reduced steadily. Due to effort reductions in Amendment 4 (1994) and Amendment 7 (1999), DAS allocations were reduced almost by half from 204 DAS in 1994 to 120 DAS in 1999. Since 1999, the number of open area DAS has continued
( printed page 69244)
to decline, although more effort has been allocated to fish in access areas, which served to offset that reduction. In fishing year 2026, a full-time vessel was allocated 36 open area DAS and no access area trips.
Some members of the industry have commented that the current low allocations, paired with increasing costs, are reducing profits and suggesting the reconsideration of certain management approaches may be timely. Some crews routinely work on multiple vessels in one fishing year. Further, reports suggest that some ports are congested with vessels tied to the dock for the majority of the year causing safety and space issues.
The Secretary is considering addressing excess capacity in the limited access scallop fishing by allowing up to two limited access scallop permits to be combined on a single vessel. The vessel would be permitted to fish the allocations for both permits, which would reduce business expenses associated with maintaining multiple vessels with low DAS allocations.
To mitigate risks of fleet consolidation, job loss, and effort spillover into other fisheries, any potential Secretarial amendment under consideration would evaluate specific protective management measures, including but not limited to:
Limiting stacked permits to those within the same Limited Access category (i.e.,
full-time, part-time, occasional);
Requiring stacking to be a one-time, permanent, and irreversible action (i.e.,
prohibiting de-stacking);
Whether to restrict permit stacking to strictly respect existing vessel length, tonnage, and horsepower baseline restrictions (i.e.,
disallowing a permit carrying a smaller baseline specification to stack onto a vessel with larger baselines and to ensure stacking is not used to bypass vessel replacement limits);
Narrowing allowable permit stacking exclusively to vessels under common ownership or common control in order to avoid fleet concentration and accommodate the needs of active owner-operators; and
Maintaining the ownership cap of no more than 5 percent of the total number of limited access permits.
These hearings are physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aid should be directed to Emily Keiley, (978) 281-9116 at least 5 days prior to any meeting date.
www.regulations.gov
noaanmfs-meets.webex.com/noaanmfs-meets/j.php?MTID=medf57ebff82a5b2f8eba37822902afaf
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/commercial-fishing/scoping-potential-secretarial-action-implement-permit
16 U.S.C. 1801