May 21, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The biological stock structure of Atlantic cod and its implications for science and management will be discussed during two different rounds of public workshops. The first series, which begins on June 1, 2021, will cover the science aspects, while a second series, to be held later this year, will cover the management side.
An Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group was formed in early 2018 to inventory and summarize all relevant peer-reviewed information about the stock structure of Atlantic cod in U.S. and adjacent waters.
Atlantic cod currently is managed as two stocks – Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. However, the working group concluded in its 2020 report that the population of Atlantic cod in New England waters consists of five distinct biological stocks as follows:
- Georges Bank;
- Southern New England;
- Western Gulf of Maine and Cape Cod winter spawners;
- Western Gulf of Maine spring spawners that overlap spatially with the Western Gulf of Maine and Cape Cod winter spawner stock; and
- Eastern Gulf of Maine