From NOAA Fishnews:
South Atlantic Council to Meet; Jun 10-15 in Key West, FL
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and its advisory committees will meet on June 10-15, 2007 at the Doubletree Grand Key Resort in Key West, FL.
Due to a string of unfortunate events I'll be chairing the socioeconomic subcommittee of the Scientific and Statistical Committee. So, right now I'm either (a) too busy reviewing the briefing book (gag, snapper grouper, and mackerel issues) or (b) out on the town (7 pm shuttle to downtown)... and unable to continue this post ...
Update: From the SAFMC webpage:
This will be a busy meeting week with several concurrent sessions scheduled. The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet early in the week and provide recommendations on several issues for other Council committees to consider. Also, the Limited Access Privilege (LAP) Program Exploratory Workgroup will meet concurrently to continue work on options in developing a LAP Program for the commercial snapper grouper fishery.
The LAP program is also known as Individual Fishing Quotas and, if marketable, Individual Transferable Quotas. The reauthorized in 2007 Magnuson-Stevens Act allows for these and there is a better than good chance that individual quotas will be implemented in the snapper grouper fishery at some point. I'm hoping to attend a couple hours of the workgroup's meeting on Tuesday before heading to airport.
