NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — January 25, 2013 — There is more bad news for New England fishermen in the lead-up to next week's highly anticipated meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council.
NOAA Fisheries Northeast director John K. Bullard informed the council in a letter that there is no room left under the law to allow anything but a total stop to overfishing for Gulf of Maine cod and haddock.
"The bad news is there are no fish," Bullard, a former New Bedford mayor, told The Standard-Times. "That's the bad news that we've got to face."
"We reviewed our previous determination that the use of interim measures under …. the Magnuson Stevens Act is limited to one year and that overfishing must be ended for fishing year 2013," which starts May 1, Bullard wrote.
Bullard said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shown it tries to be flexible but last year's delay in imposing heavy cuts produced no results.
"There's just bad news everywhere you look," Bullard said.
"There's a temptation to say 'Well, if we took an interim measure this will turn something into good news.' That's just an illusion. The interim measures we took last year didn't turn bad news into good news."
Seafood consultant James Kendall said Thursday night that Bullard "makes a lot of good points but the problem is the guys are in such deep straits that they're looking for what little relief they can get.
"He is just stating the letter of the law and trying to find ways to work within it."
Added Kendall: "I think there's going to be a lot of disappointed fishermen."
Recent reviews of stock assessments released last week propose that a cut in catch limits of from 61 percent to over 80 percent might be required to protect dwindling stocks of Gulf of Maine cod and Georges Bank cod.
Read the full story in the New Bedford Standard Times