SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SCOM] — August 11, 2014 — Speaking on a WGAN news program in Maine, Jim Odlin, who owns several trawlers fishing haddock and has served a number of terms on the New England management council, suggested that he has seen times in the past when the NOAA science center has sent out a letter about a significant change in a stock different than a scheduled survey.
He also says that the industry needs more frequent surveys, and that in the past they have been whipsawed by radical changes from one survey to the next.
But he also cautioned "there is no assesment that is public, just a letter from the Science Center to the New England Council suggesting there is a problem, and indicating the stock is at it lowest level."
It is premature to jump to radical conclusions, such as there will be no cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine next year, says Odlin.
For example, the recreational fisheries caught 340 tons of Gulf of Maine cod, and that could be equal to the entire quota this coming year. If a recreational fishery that fishes part of the year in fixed places can catch this much, Odlin suggests there is more cod around than the survey might show.
New England has had problems with NOAA survey vessels giving poor results before, says Odlin, and contrasted the surveys done in the North Pacific, which are 80% done with industry vessels chartered for the survey, so the fishing techniques are more closely matched.
IN any event, Odlin says, the survey will have to be reviewed, and this will not really begin until September.
This story originially appeared in SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.