CHATHAM, MA (February 21, 2009) – Until three years ago, John Our did what most fishermen do when they catch more cod in a day than they are allowed to bring ashore: He threw overboard thousands of pounds of the scarce and fabled fish, once so plentiful that it helped to spawn New England cities.
"I was discarding more fish per year than I was selling," Our said. The practice was doing little to replenish cod stocks, since many fish died after being returned to the sea.
Now, he is part of a new way to tackle overfishing, one that sets a yearly cod quota to be shared by the fishermen in a community and leaves it up to them to decide how much they catch each day.
Read the Boston Globe story in full