July 8, 2025 — The New England Fishery Management Council will resubmit Amendment 25 to its Northeast groundfish plan, after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik disapproved the regional council’s original December 2024 proposal.
The National Marine Fisheries said May 28 “that Amendment 25 and its supporting analyses do not adequately demonstrate how the proposed action is consistent with National Standard 1 or other required provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.”
After a lengthy deliberation at the council’s Junemeeting, its members voted to resubmit Amendment 25, “which would replace the current Atlantic cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank with the newly identified cod stocks in Eastern Gulf of Maine, Western Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England,” council officials announced July 3.
The plan was protested by New England fishermen after the council’s initial approval last December. Despite Lutnik’s disapproval, NMFS still assessed that a new four-stock Atlantic cod structure “and the resulting management track stock assessments have been determined to be the best scientific information available.”