New England Council Research Steering Committee Meeting

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Research Steering Committee (Committee) in June, 2012, to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

DATES: The meeting will be held on Monday, June 25, 2012, at 9 a.m.

The meeting will be held at the Courtyard by Marriott, 225 McClellan Highway, East Boston, MA 02128, telephone: (617) 569-5250; fax: (617) 569-5159.

Council address: New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul J. Howard, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council; telephone: (978) 465-0492.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Research Steering Committee will meet to 

give an update on NEFSC Northeast Cooperative Research Program as well 

as an update on NERO Cooperative research activities. The Committee 

will also review cooperative research projects final reports: (1) 

REDNET--A Network to Redevelop a Sustainable Redfish (Sebastes 

fasciatus) Trawl Fishery in the Gulf of Maine; Kohl Kanwit, Mike Pol, 

Pingguo He; (2) Optimizing the Georges Bank Scallop Fishery by 

Maximizing Meat Yield and Minimizing Bycatch; 2011 Sea Scallop Research 

Set-Aside, Ronald Smolowitz, Kathryn Goetting, Farrell Davis, Dan Ward, 

Coonamessett Farm Foundation, Inc; (3) A Study on the Use of Tie-Downs 

and Their Impact on Atlantic Sturgeon, Marine Mammal Bycatch and 

Targeted Catch in the New Jersey Monkfish Fishery. Fox, D. A., L. M. 

Brown, K. W. Wark, and J. L. Armstrong. 2011, NOAA Bycatch Reduction 

Engineering Program; (4) Pilot Project to Assess Need and Initialize a 

Methodology to Groundtruth Existing Mulit-beam and Side-scan Sonar 

Seafloor Charts--NEC Report, Salvatore Genovese, Ph.D. Northeast 

University; (5) Ecological Role of Adult and Juvenile Anadromous Forage 

fish in Downeast Maine Estuaries: Sea-run Alewife and Groundfish Prey--

NEC Report, Karen Wilson, University of Southern Maine; and (6) A 

Collaborative Effort to Examine New Strategies for Managing Closed 

Bottom Habitats for Sea Scallops--NEC Report, Dr. Brian F. Beal, 

University of Maine at Machias, Terry Stockwell and Chris Bartlett.