Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast Multispecies Fishery; Trip Limit Decrease for the Common Pool Fishery

NMFS decreases the trip limits for Gulf of Maine (GOM) and George's Bank (GB) cod for Northeast (NE) multispecies common pool vessels for the 2011 fishing year (FY), through April 30, 2012. This action is authorized under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), and by the regulations implementing Amendment 16 and Framework Adjustment (FW) 44 to the NE Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The action is intended to reduce the harvest of GOM and GB cod to prevent the common pool sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) from being exceeded.