January 23, 2015 — The Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fishery hit four-year lows in just about every pivotal category during the 2013 fishing season, including landings, revenues and the number of boats fishing in the inshore day-boat fleet.
The findings, contained in NOAA’s final report on the season released Thursday, sketch a pessimistic and dire portrait of an entire fishery under siege from economic, regulatory and environmental pressures during the past four years.
That is especially true in Gloucester and Massachusetts.
In Gloucester, the past four years have brought a whopping 37.2 percent decline in gross revenues from all species as a landed port ($24.98 million), and a similarly devastating 31.8 percent decline in gross revenues generated by fishermen who call the port home ($17.06 million).
Those declines are largely driven by losses in groundfish revenues. America’s oldest seaport suffered a 47.4 percent decline in gross groundfish revenues as a landed port ($14.53 million) and a 43.9 percent decline in gross groundfish revenues as a home port ($9.41 million) in the past four years.
On a regional basis, Massachusetts suffered the most during the past four years, losing $29 million in gross groundfish revenues as a landed port and $22.2 million as a home port state.
“Fishing Year 2013 saw a continuation of the mostly negative trends seen for the limited access groundfish fleet in Fishing Year 2012 compared with the landings and revenues seen in the fishery from 2010 to 2011,” the report stated.
Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times