PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management has announced that amended regulations go into effect on Thursday, February 17 that will prohibit commercial fishermen from possessing and landing scup in Rhode Island waters until May 1. The closure is required by the federal fisheries management plan for scup because the winter quota of 1,082,000 pounds along the Atlantic coast has been landed.

Every year the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission assign catch quotas for scup harvested in Rhode Island and other East Coast states. Quota management is designed to restore the scup stock to sustainable levels and to provide a sustainable scup stock for the future.

The fishery management plan, developed jointly by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, is designed to rebuild the population of scup, a fin fish that is of great importance to the Rhode Island fishing industry. Rhode Island is represented on both the Council and the Commission.