NOAA Fisheries Announces 2025-2026 Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Specifications

Atlantic mackerel, Illex squid, longfin squid, butterfish, and chub mackerel are managed by NOAA Fisheries and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council through the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The Council finalized its recommendations for 2025 and projected 2025 butterfish fishery specifications, and recommended reaffirming projected 2025 Atlantic mackerel fishery specifications, during its October 2024 meeting. The Council also recommended reaffirming projected 2025 specifications for the chub mackerel, Illex squid, and longfin squid fisheries during its June 2024 meeting. NOAA Fisheries is approving and implementing the Council's recommended specifications. The 2025 specifications set through this action will replace the rollover 2024 specifications that the Atlantic mackerel, Illex squid, longfin squid, butterfish, and chub mackerel fisheries have been operating under since the beginning of the fishing year (January 1, 2025).

2025 and Projected 2026 Butterfish Specifications

Relative to 2024, the 2025 butterfish fishery specifications will:

• Increase the overfishing limit (OFL) by 9.3 percent;
• Increase the ABC/annual catch limit (ACL) by 8.6 percent;
• Lower the annual catch target (ACT) buffer to zero percent, resulting in a 14.3-percent increase in the ACT;
• Increase assumed other discards by 52.8 percent and the total discard set-aside by 12.8 percent;
• Maintain the butterfish discard cap in the longfin squid fishery;
• Increase the domestic annual harvest (DAH) by 15.0 percent; and
• Maintain the trimester allocations for the butterfish mortality cap.

In 2026, the projected butterfish OFL, ABC, and ACT will decrease by 19.1 percent, and the projected DAH will decrease by 28.9 percent, relative to 2025. The remainder of the projected 2026 specifications will remain status quo relative to 2025 (Table 1 and Table 2).

Table 1. Final 2025 and Projected 2026 Butterfish Fishery Specifications (mt).

*The Council's RSA program has been suspended since 2014.

Table 2. Final 2025 and Projected 2026 Trimester Allocation of the Butterfish Mortality Cap for the Longfin Squid Fishery.

Reaffirmed 2025 Chub Mackerel Specifications

Projected 2025 chub mackerel fishery specifications were set through the final rule implementing 2023-2025 specifications for the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish FMP . The reaffirmed 2025 specifications remain status quo relative to 2024 (Table 3).

Table 3. Reaffirmed 2025 Chub Mackerel Fishery Specifications (mt).

Reaffirmed 2025 Illex Squid Specifications

Projected 2025 Illex squid fishery specifications were set through the final rule implementing 2024-2026 specifications for the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish FMP . The reaffirmed 2025 specifications remain status quo relative to 2024 (Table 4).

Table 4. Reaffirmed 2025 Illex Squid Fishery Specifications (mt).

*The Council's RSA program has been suspended since 2014.

Reaffirmed 2025 Longfin Squid Specifications

Projected 2025 Illex squid fishery specifications were set through the final rule implementing 2024-2026 specifications for the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish FMP . The reaffirmed 2025 specifications remain status quo relative to 2024 (Table 5 and Table 6).

Table 5. Reaffirmed 2025 Longfin Squid Fishery Specifications (mt).

*The Council's RSA program has been suspended since 2014.

Table 6. Reaffirmed 2025 Longfin Squid Quota Trimester Allocations.

Reaffirmed 2025 Atlantic Mackerel Specifications

Projected 2025 specifications for Atlantic mackerel were set through the final rule to implement 2024 and projected 2025 Atlantic mackerel specifications .

The reaffirmed 2025 specifications remain status quo relative to 2024, with one correction. When the 2025 Atlantic mackerel specifications were projected, the ACL was accidentally set equal to the stock-wide ABC. This final rule corrects that error and sets the 2025 ACL equal to the stock-wide ABC minus the Canadian catch deduction (Table7).

Table 7. Reaffirmed 2025 Atlantic Mackerel Fishery Specifications (mt).

*The Council's RSA program has been suspended since 2014.

Butterfish Minimum Mesh Size

This final rule decreases the minimum size for square mesh used on directed butterfish trawl trips (trips possessing more than 5,000 lb of butterfish) from 3 inches to greater than 2 5/8 inches. The existing 3-inch minimum size for diamond mesh used on directed butterfish trawl trips remains unchanged. This change in minimum square mesh size will provide the industry with additional flexibility to use readily-available materials while still minimizing catch of immature butterfish.

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