Today's Main Story: Council votes to exempt NE lobster fishery from cod management measures Several developments out the North American lobster industry top our news items today. First, New England lobstermen were exempted from emergency cod management measures that had proposed banning lobster trap gear in areas where cod spawn. “There is no definitive evidence right now to support prohibiting lobster pot fishing in closed areas,” said Patricia Fiorelli, spokeswoman for the council. In Canada, about 70 percent of lobstermen in PEI voted in favor of a one cent per pound marketing levy last week. The money will be used to fund a lobster marketing campaign and lobbying group. At the same time PEI’s Fishermen and Processors Associations met with First Nation tribes to hash out details for a new lobster brand that will be marketed to Chinese and EU consumers. Meanwhile, fishermen in Nova Scotia’s LFA 34 have been reminded about the fisheries wind delay protocol with the season set to start this Monday at 6 am. If winds exceed 25 knots, officials will postpone the opening. Last year strong winds caused a 6 day to delay to fishing in LFA 34. The current forecast calls for rain and southeasterly winds topping out at 8 knots. The region traditionally produces the highest landings among the Canadian lobster fishing areas. In other news, Chile has agreed to cut next year’s hake fishing quota after an acoustic survey found the fishery’s biomass is down over 6 percent in a year. High amounts of juvenile fish and other IUU fishing practices have resulted in over 10 straights years of declining catches out of the fishery. Finally, the FDA issued a clarification to the story we reprinted yesterday from Inside US Trade that originally said the FDA could end its alerts on US seafood imports from China. The agency said it would be keeping existing import alerts but would be open to removing alerts on specific Chinese seafood exporters ”if they demonstrated a clean track record.”