New England Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting

AGENCY:

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION:

Notice of a public meeting.

SUMMARY:

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Habitat/Marine Protected Area Committee in April, 2004. Recommendations from the committee will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

DATES:

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 at 9:30 a.m.

ADDRESSES:

The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn, One Newbury Street, Peabody, MA 01960; telephone: (978) 535-4600.

Council address: New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Newburyport, MA 01950.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paul J. Howard, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council; telephone: (978) 465-0492.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The committee will discuss upcoming Omnibus Habitat Amendment organizational issues and presentations on general habitat education issues. They will debate and consider essential fish habitat issues related to Herring Amendment 1 and Multispecies Framework 40.

In addition, they will discuss Marine Protected Area (MPA) policies from around the nation and begin the development a draft MPA policy statement for further discussion and eventual Council consideration. The committee may take up other non-actionable topics as necessary.

Although non-emergency issues not contained in this agenda may come before this group for discussion, those issues may not be the subject of formal action during this meeting. Action will be restricted to those issues specifically listed in this notice and any issues arising after publication of this notice that require emergency action under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, provided the public has been notified of the Council's intent to take final action to address the emergency.

Special Accommodations

This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Paul J. Howard (see ADDRESSES) at least 5 days prior to the meeting dates.