January 23, 2013 — A roughly 80 percent cut in Gulf of Maine Cod annual catch and a 61 percent cut in Georges Bank cod are being recommended to fisheries regulators by a special four-person panel.
The panel was appointed last year after the turmoil over radically and unexpectedly reduced estimates of cod populations. It re-examined the assessments and looked at newer ones and concluded that the picture is bleak indeed.
"There is little good news about the health of cod stocks in the Northeast," said Pat Fiorelli, spokeswoman for the New England Fishery Management Council.
"Eighty percent?" asked seafood consultant Jim Kendall. "I don't know why they don't shut the fishery down and get the guys into some program to help them survive. If they cut the stock 80 percent, it's just undoable."
Groundfish boats would quickly be over their limits on bycatch alone, Kendall said.
The recommendation is far from final. The report of the special panel will be taken up today in Boston by the council's Scientific and Statistical Committee.
Steve Cadrin, a UMass Dartmouth marine scientist who sits on the Scientific and Statistical Committee, said there may be several explanations for what scientists are seeing in the cod fishery.
Many wonder what it means that the fleet has caught only about half of its current year's allocation of cod, and even less in some other species. The cod may have moved, the climate is changing, and some fishermen are holding off fishing at all until prices improve, said Kendall.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times