Updates to Amendment 10 to the Scallop Fishery Management Plan

01/13/03 Area Alternatives for Habitat Protection have been developed and presented to the Habitat and Scallop O/S Committees to take out to public hearings for Scallop Amendment 10.

06/12/02 Rose Cook of National Undersea Research Center has put up an FTP site with Essential Fish Habitat, productivity, adult, and juvenile Maps for many commercial species to be used in a structured approach in developing habitat options for area management for the scallop industry. Here's an example of option 4F closure areas displayed over 10 minute squares for where juvenile cod have shown up in the NEFSC survey.

10/19/02 NOAA Technical Report NMFS 140 (R. Wigley, R. Theroux, 1998) describes the results of analysis of biological samples from grab samples obtained during many cruises from 1956 to 1965. If we are to consider all factors about what lives where in our scoping process for Amendment 10, then inclusion of the results of this study is necesary under the concept of 'best available science'. Digital data is in process of being edited for upcoming publication and integration with the USGS sediments database (USGS Open File Report 00-358).

Location of sample sites along the US eastcoast. Maps of location, number, and weight of combined taxa.
North up for image mapping in ArcView. (~800k) Comparison of species by depth.

below: image registered within ArcView

Materials for PDT/Advisors meeting, 25 April 2002

The first three images have been provided by Andy Applegate and Ed Durbeck, NEFMC, 4/19/2002

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Below is a plot and legend of the USGS sediments database showing number, location, and composition of samples.
(data from USGS Open File Report 00-358, L. Poppe and C. Polloni, eds.)

Why is it no surprise at how similar the habitat protection areas are to those proposed in the last several years?