Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to Convene its Standing, Special Mackerel and Special Reef Fish Scientific and Statistical Committees

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will convene its Standing, Special Mackerel and Special Reef Fish Scientific and Statistical Committees (SSC) May 17 - 19, 2011 in Tampa, Florida.

The Standing and Special Mackerel SSC will meet jointly Tuesday, May 17, 2011 to review available biological information and reconsider the overfishing limit and acceptable biological catch recommendations it made earlier in the year for Gulf group Spanish mackerel and cobia. The remainder of the meeting will be a joint meeting of the Standing and Special Reef Fish SSC, which will review benchmark assessments of yellowedge grouper and tilefish. The Committee will recommend an overfishing level and acceptable biological catch based on the assessments and the control rule. The SSC will also review reruns of the projection analyses for the 2009 update assessments of gag, red grouper and red snapper.

Finally, the SSC will review and recommend an overfishing level and acceptable biological catch for several data-poor stocks and stock groupings, including mid-water snapper complex (silk snapper and wenchman), tilefish complex (tilefish, blueline tilefish, and goldface tilefish), shallow-water grouper complex (black grouper, scamp, and yellowmouth grouper), deep-water grouper complex (yellowedge grouper, warsaw grouper, snowy grouper, and speckled hind), and cubera snapper.

The meeting will be held at the Gulf Council office, 2203 N. Lois Avenue, Suite 1100, in Tampa, Florida. The panel will convene at 9:00 pm Tuesday, and adjourn no later than 2:00 p.m. Thursday. Copies of the agenda and other related materials may be obtained by calling 813-348-1630 or by visiting the Council’s ftp site at ftp.gulfcouncil.org.

This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Kathy Pereira at the Council office at least five working days prior to the meeting.

Although other non-emergency issues not on the agenda may come before the committee, in accordance with the M-SFCMA, those issues may not be the subject of formal action during this meeting. Panel action will be restricted to those issues specifically identified in the agenda.

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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