Eric Schwaab, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service, flew up from Washington to attend Friday's meeting, which his agency helped pull together in recent weeks.
Schwaab said regulators can't afford to rule out solutions that fall outside the established scientific and management guidelines, because the "numbers are so bad and the implication to the fisheries so significant."
If the data is verified, the drastic cuts would have to be in affect by the start of the May 1 start of the fishing year. Several people suggested taking steps to give regulators more time to investigate alternatives and even collect new scientific data.
Peter Shelley of the environmental group the Conservation Law Foundation expressed doubt cod was so suddenly in such poor shape. He noted the data shows it's recovering, even if it's not as fast enough to meet the 2014 deadline.
"Just in my gut, I don't think Gulf of Maine cod is in jeopardy," he said.
According to regional regulators, if the new data holds up, New Hampshire would see a 90 percent drop in groundfish revenues compared to 2010, Maine would see a 54 percent drop in revenues and Massachusetts would have a 21 percent drop, with northeastern ports such as Gloucester (a 60 percent drop) taking the worst hit.
Fishermen have been deeply skeptical of the new data, saying the dismal outlook contradicts what they're seeing on the water, where they say cod is abundant and being caught over an ever-larger area.
New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel called the numbers "entirely erroneous" and said there's no reason managers should continue to rely on them. If the current estimates are correct, he said, he caught more than 1 percent of all the 9-year-old cod in the Gulf of Maine during a recent 30-minute tow.
"If we want to do something about Gulf of Maine cod, you better stop me from fishing," he said with sarcasm, drawing chuckles from the audience.
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