NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Region has published an Omnibus Fishery Management Plan Amendment and Proposed Rule to implement a Standarized Bycatch Reporting Methodology (SBRM) across all the Fishery Management Plans in the region.  While this plan would purportedly offer the public assurances that alll bycatch will be monitored and reported, Herring Alliance leaders maintain that it is in fact an inadequate management measure undermined by seriously flawed science.  Now an independent scientific review of the SBRM conducted by the Lenfest Ocean Program has confirmed those suspicions by revealing a number of problems with the assumptions, approaches and conclusions of the plan.  The report, written by Murdoch K. McAllister, PhD, of the Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia in September 2007 is available here:

"Review of the Northeast Region Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology"