Under a compromise endorsed Thursday by the New England Fishery Management Council, the scalloping sector of the region's fishing fleets would give the groundfishing fleet a big chunk of its allocation for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder.
The handoff to groundfishermen landing the catches in Gloucester from scallopers working primarily from New Bedford would boost the yellowtail allocation for groundfishing boats by about 70 percent, the Associated Press reported. It would also ease the potential for yellowtail hauled up as groundfishermen's bycatch from choking off fishermen's ability to land other fish.
In exchange, the scallopers would be indemnified for exceeding their voluntarily reduced allocation of yellowtail this year.
The arrangement, debated at length Thursday at the council's June meeting in Portland, Maine, must be approved by NOAA, but it was brokered by Sam Rauch, who has been the acting administrator of NOAA's National Marine Fishery Service.
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