May 25, 2015 — It isn’t just the Northeast commercial groundfishing fleet that is struggling under the weight of the more restrictive federal fishing regulations that have completely taken cod off the table in the Gulf of Maine.
The tendrils of those new regulations have reached the charter and for-hire fishing operators, who now try to combat both the reality — no cod — and the perception — no other groundfish species is worth the time and expense of a charter trip — that have been generated by increasingly restrictive regulations instituted for the 2015 fishing season.
Now as the weather starts to warm, Tom Orrell of the Gloucester-based Yankee Fleet and other charter operators are trying to push back against the unceasing dire reports on the state of the cod fishery that continue to play against the backdrop of the declining fortunes of the Gloucester groundfish fleet.
Their sales pitch is simple: The cod, at least for this year, are gone but the continuing allure of the sea-going fishing experience remains. The experience, they say, trumps species.
“We can’t fish for cod this season and there’s nothing we can do about that right now,” said Orrell, who recently moved his entire operation to Parker Street from its previous location on East Main Street. “There’s just been so much negative publicity, but what we’re trying to get across to folks is that there are species we can fish and that the experience of fishing out on the North Atlantic and the experience of Gloucester and the experience of getting to take some fish home are all still there.”
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times