For the past five years, New England fishermen have watched their groundfishing season shrink, their trip limits drop and their profits plummet under restrictions designed to build sustainable populations of cod, flounder and other overfished species.
Faced with ever-increasing limits, fishermen said they were slowly being forced out of the industry and for no good reason — most fish stocks had failed to recover. Last September, a federal survey showed that several flounder stocks were in worse shape than managers realized. So a new batch of regulations took effect in May, further cutting fishing days and barring fishermen from catching depleted fish.
Now, fishery regulators and environmental groups are supporting a shift to a new management system they believe will be more effective at rebuilding fish stocks and making fishing profitable. The New England Fishery Management Council will meet this week in Portland, Maine, to vote on the new system, known as "sectors."