NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service has announced that the closure f commercial fishing of black sea bass in the waters of South Atlantic. NOAA has determined the 2009 commercial quota of 309,000 pounds of black sea bass will be reached by May 15, 2009. It is informed that the operator of a vessel that has been issued a federal commercial permit for snapper-grouper and that is landing black sea bass for sale, including a charter vessel or headboat that has a commercial permit for snappergrouper, must have landed and bartered, traded, or sold such black sea bass prior to 12:01 a.m., local time, May 15, 2009.
According to NOAA during the period of closure all harvest and possession of black sea bass in or from federal waters of the South Atlantic is subject to the applicable bag and possession limits, and the sale or purchase of black sea bass taken from South Atlantic federal waters is prohibited. It is also said that those bag and possession limits and the prohibition on sale or purchase apply in state and federal waters of the South Atlantic for a vessel for which a valid federal commercial or charter vessel/headboat permit for South Atlantic snapper-grouper has been issued.
It is said that the ban provision is not apply to black sea bass that were harvested, landed ashore, and sold prior to 12:01 a.m., local time, May 15, 2009, and were held in cold storage by a dealer or processor. The closure is certainly comply with the regulations implementing the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region and is necessary to protect the black sea bass resource.
