August 30, 2014 — Many of the fishermen blame the National Marine Fisheries Service. They say that big trawlers were allowed to decimate the cod population and that the cod fishery was badly managed.
Some also blame the seals that have become ubiquitous around Cape Cod. Seals pilfer from fishing nets, eating the bellies out of the cod and ruining catches, said John Tuttle, who has fished out of Chatham for 37 years.
Last year, commercial fishermen caught just 2 million pounds of cod in the Gulf of Maine, which stretches from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod, down from 13.1 million pounds in 2009. Two decades ago, fishermen hauled in 30.5 million pounds.
Some fishing regulations have been put in place over the decades to prevent overfishing, but recently, fishermen couldn't even reach the annual limit of 14 million pounds.
"It really fell apart in the last two years," said Greg Walinski, who has made a living fishing in Cape Cod for 35 years. "We're at the point now where it's become economically impossible to do it."
While other once-overfished populations such as haddock are rebounding, the news about cod has gone from bad to worse.
This month scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote that their new analysis "presents a grim picture for the potential recovery of the iconic fish stock." The amount of fish big enough to spawn off the Gulf of Maine is at 3% to 4% of normal levels, the scientists said.
Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times