Gulf Council to convene its Vessel Monitoring System Advisory Panel

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will convene its Vessel Monitoring Advisory Panel August 11, 2010 in Tampa, Florida. The panel will meet to discuss operation, design, agency usage of vessel monitoring systems (VMS), as well as resulting data from these systems. The panel will also make recommendations to the Council related to these discussions.

This is the first meeting of the panel, which was formed to advise the Council on matters pertaining to the use of VMS in the reef fish fishery, as well as the system’s effectiveness and how the data collected might be used.

The panel will review technical issues with VMS and consider potential solutions. It will also consider current and future VMS design to determine if existing systems are adequate in terms of ease-of-use, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness.

The panel will also discuss issues pertaining to data availability and distribution to ensure that VMS data are used appropriately and that the confidentiality is preserved where appropriate.

The meeting will be held at the Gulf Council Office, 2203 N. Lois Avenue, Suite 1100, and will begin at 9:00 a.m. The meeting will conclude no later than 3:30p.m. with a discussion of the potential role of VMS for verification of seafood origin.

Although other issues not on the agenda may come before the panel for discussion, in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, those issues may not be the subject of formal panel action during this meeting. Panel action will be restricted to those issues specifically identified in the agenda listed as available by this notice.

Copies of the agenda and related materials can be obtained by calling the Council office at 813-348-1630.

This meeting is open to the public and is physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Tina O’Hern five working days prior to the meeting.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. The Council prepares fishery management plans designed to manage fishery resources in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
 

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