SAFMC is responsible for the conservation and management of fish stocks within the federal 200-mile limit of the Atlantic off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and east Florida to Key West.
The role of the council is to develop fishery management plans needed to manage fishery resources within federal waters. The area encompassing federal waters, sometimes referred to as the Exclusive Economic Zone or EEZ, extends offshore from state waters (three miles in the South Atlantic) to 200 nautical miles.
Group Solutions provided facilitation and project management for updating the South Atlantic Fishery Ecosystem Plan. The process involved facilitating 12 science teams who reviewed, updated and in some cases created new chapters for the plan. Over 100 teleconferences and webinars were facilitated to support this effort. A project website was maintained to provide a central repository of each writing team’s responses, a library of publications, research, and documents considered in the review and a schedule of project timelines.
Additionally, a 5-year review of essential fish habitat was facilitated. This process was the first to integrate coastal ecosystem planning with South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative conservation blueprint.