Commercial fishermen in New England would have the option of being regulated by how much fish they catch, not how many days they spend at sea, under new rules passed by fishery regulators.
The New England Fishery Management Council approved a plan Thursday to allocate shares of the annual catch to groups, or sectors, of fishermen in the ongoing effort to rebuild populations of haddock, flounder and other so-called groundfish.
Fishermen who participate would no longer be limited to a specified number of fishing days but could face shutdowns if their group exceeds its catch limit. Fishermen who don’t want to join a group would still have the option of being managed based primarily on the number of days they spend fishing.