PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, February 26 on proposed amendments to the state's marine fisheries regulations. The hearing will take place at 6 p.m. at the University of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay Campus Corless Auditorium on South Ferry Road in Narragansett.

For the commercial sector, the amendments include changes to the monkfish and menhaden fisheries as well as a proposal to add a second aggregate landing permit for scup. They also include amendments to the quota management plans for striped bass and tautog.

Recreational anglers would also be affected by amendments to the tautog quota management plan, the main amendment being a drop in the fall bag limit from ten to eight fish.

Regarding scup, DEM is taking comments on a proposed aggregate landing permit program, similar to the current winter aggregate program, that would extend from May through October. Under the proposal, those participating could catch up to 5,000 pounds of scup in each calendar week between May 1 and June 30, and up to 500 pounds per calendar week from July 1 through October 31, until each sub-period quota is met. Those not in the aggregate program could catch 1,000 pounds per day from May 1 through June 30 and 100 pounds per day from July 1 through October 31 until each sub-period quota is met. Anyone participating in the winter scup aggregate program would not be allowed to participate in the May-October aggregate period within the same year.

Regarding menhaden, two options are being presented. Under option one, the catch limit would be 75,000 pounds per vessel per day while in state waters, on weekdays only. Under option two, the option approved by the RI Marine Fisheries Council's Menhaden Advisory Panel, the catch limit would be 120,000 pounds per vessel per day, on weekdays only, with a purse seine net size limitation. Under both options, the fishery would close when 50 percent of the estimated stock in Narragansett Bay has been harvested.

Several options are being presented regarding monkfish. They include keeping the status quo, two alternative possession limits, and two alternative state-directed monk fishery permit plans. One permit plan would allow Rhode Island vessels with a history of targeting monkfish in state waters to continue to do so, with several conditions, and mirroring the federal qualifying requirements. The other, an experimental plan with the purpose of gathering data that can be used to understand the magnitude and seasonality of the monkfish fishery in Rhode Island waters, would allow three non-federally permitted vessels to participate under several explicit conditions.

The proposed regulations can be found on DEM's website, www.dem.ri.gov, by clicking on "Fish and Wildlife" under "Offices and Divisions", then clicking on "Marine Fisheries". Copies are also available by contacting the offices of the Division of Fish and Wildlife at 4808 Tower Hill Road in Wakefield or at 3 Fort Wetherill Road in Jamestown.

The public will be afforded the opportunity to comment at the hearing, or by submitting written comments no later than noon on February 26 to DEM's Division of Fish and Wildlife, 3 Fort Wetherill Road, Jamestown, RI 02835.