Gulf Council Press Release: Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to Convene its Standing,Special Reef Fish, and Special Spiny Lobster Scientific & StatisticalCommittees

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will convene its Standing and Special Reef Fish and Special Spiny Lobster Scientific and Statistical Committees January 18 – 21, 2011, in Tampa, Florida. Every attempt will be made to broadcast the meeting over the Internet.

The Committee will meet to review several recently completed stock assessments and supplemental assessment analyses, and to recommend levels of acceptable biological catch. During the first day of the meeting, the Standing and Special Spiny Lobster Scientific and Statistical Committees will meet to review a spiny lobster update assessment and make recommendations to the Council. The remainder of the meeting will be a meeting of the Standing and Special Reef Fish Scientific and Statistical Committees. The Committees will review draft terms of reference for a gray triggerfish update assessment and a vermilion snapper update assessment to be conducted in 2011.

The Committee will then review a re-run of the 2009 gag update assessment with a corrected size distribution for the recreational discard data and commercial discard estimates based on observer data.

The Committee will also review the impact of applying observer-based discard estimates on the 2009 red grouper update assessment. Finally, the Committee will review the following assessments:

·  Greater Amberjack Update Assessment
·  SEDAR 15 Mutton Snapper Benchmark Assessment
·  SEDAR 23 Goliath Grouper Benchmark Assessment

The meeting will be held at the Gulf Council office, 2203 N. Lois Avenue, Suite 1100, in Tampa, Florida. The panel will convene at 1:00 pm Tuesday, and adjourn no later than noon on Friday. 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 Trish Kennedy 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.

http://www.oysterradio.com e-mail manager@oysterradio.com with comments