January 30, 2013 — The New England Fishery Management Council met Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to approve major cutbacks that would likely cripple Maine's fishing industry.
The council approved 77% cuts to the cod stock in the waters of the Gulf of Maine. That's a drastic cut in the amount that fishermen can haul.
Top fishing regulators acknowledge the cuts will devastate the industry in New England but they say there's little they can do to prevent them. They say they are bound by law to reduce overfishing. They say Cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine and George's Bank are alarming low with no signs of rebounding.
If the cuts for this year Cod catch limits had been reduced by 80-percent, that would limit fishermen to 1249 metric tons. It wasn't that long ago that fishermen would be hauling in 8000 metric tons.
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