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landings of which 20 percent was harvested by dredgers while 

 13 percent was harvested by "netters". 



In the 1975-77 period, 36 percent of the U.S. catch came 

 from the two areas on Georges Bank while 64 percent came from 

 the Mid-Atlantic grounds. New England based vessels accounted 

 for 100 percent of the Georges Bank catch and 48 percent of 

 the Mid-Atlantic catch. 



The proposed action would extend only to the Georges 

 Bank scallop fishery. The Mid-Atlantic fishery is beyond the 

 scope of the Agreement and will be managed exclusively by 

 the United States in accordance with any fishery management 

 plan developed by the Fishery Management Councils. 



Nevertheless, because the Georges Bank scallop fishery 

 yields a significant percentage of total U.S. scallop land- 

 ings, any decrease in the supply of scallops available to 

 U.S. harvesters in the Georges Bank scallop fishery would 

 have a significant impact on the human environment, particu- 

 larly on New England based scallop dredge operators. 



Such a potential decrease would also be significant in 

 view of recent information concerning scallop abundance in 

 the Mid-Atlantic area and on the western side of Georges 

 Bank. The 1978 scallop assessment prepared by the NMFS 



Northeast Fisheries Center indicated that for the 

 intermediate period ahead scallop abundance in these areas 

 could be expected to decline as the strong 1972 year-class 



