Purpose and Scope

The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission, concerned about impacts from increased fishing effort on the Commonwealth's inshore fisheries resources, has adopted conservation and management strategies to cap fishing effort in state waters and has established timetables for further actions in the future. Regulations which implement these strategies are designed to address both the recent, sharp decline in abundance of many of the most important fisheries resources inhabiting state waters and the poor near-term prospects for inshore fisheries. Inshore fisheries resources are limited and stressed, and overall fishing pressure is increasing.