WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) March 13, 2013 — At a time when many groundfish stocks in New England have been determined by U.S. government regulators to be at low abundance, some fishing interests argue that these things are cyclical, that fish are not gone, but have moved and will return. A Canadian fisherman told reporter John Furlong, he is seeing an unprecedented numbers of fish in the waters of Newfoundland and Labrador.
During an interview on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s "The Fisheries Broadcast," Tony Doyle, a fourth generation fisherman from Bay de Verde, Newfoundland and Labrador, described current groundfish numbers in the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery as more abundant than anything he has seen in the past 40 years.
According to Doyle, the last time he had heard of groundfish being caught in such abundance was when his father and uncles began using gill-nets in the 1960s.
Doyle remains hopeful that he and his fellow fisherman will see receive larger quotas in light of such observations, which suggest positive trends in the health of the groundfish stock.
Follow the link below and listen to the discussion on groundfish, beginning at 13:40.
Listen to the full interview from The Fisheries Broadcast at the CBC