Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Northeast Multispecies Fishery; Trimester Total Allowable Catch Area Closures for the Common Pool Fishery and Trip and Possession Limit Adjustment

This action closes the Gulf of Maine cod Trimester Total Allowable Catch Area to all Northeast multispecies common pool vessels; the American plaice Trimester Total Allowable Catch Area to Northeast multispecies common pool trawl vessels; and the Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder Trimester Total Allowable Catch Area to Northeast multispecies common pool trawl and gillnet vessels, for the remainder of Trimester 1, through August 31, 2015. The closures are required by regulation because the common pool fishery has caught over 90 percent of its Trimester 1 quotas for Gulf of Maine cod, American plaice, and Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder. These closures are intended to prevent the overharvest of the common pool's allocation for these stocks. Because the common pool catch of American plaice and Cape Cod/ Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder is not limited to the respective stocks' Trimester Total Allowable Catch Area, this action also reduces possession and trip limits for the American plaice and Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder stocks to zero for all common pool vessels through August 31, 2015, in order to prevent the overharvest of the common pool's allocation of both stocks from areas not closed by this action. The possession and trip limit for GOM cod was set to zero in a previous action.