February 8, 2018 — It’s always good to have a plan. Sometimes it’s even better to have a backup plan.
The New England Fishery Management Council has one of each for its recommendations to NOAA Fisheries on recreational Gulf of Maine cod and haddock bag limits for the 2018 fishing season.
Now the council is waiting on the Massachusetts’ Division of Marine Fisheries before it decides which recommendation to forward to federal fishery regulators.
In late January, the council voted to recommend NOAA Fisheries implement a “status quo” management policy for 2018 Gulf of Maine cod and haddock that would prohibit possession of any cod by recreational fishermen.
The recommendation, which was supported by the council’s recreational advisory panel and its groundfish committee, also set a 12-fish bag limit and 17-inch minimum size for haddock in federal waters and two seasonal closures — March 1 to April 14 and Sept. 17 to Oct. 31.
But here is the rub:
Last year, the state DMF implemented a policy that allowed private recreational anglers to keep one cod from each fishing trip in state waters and those recreational landings must be accounted for in determining whether federal regulators are able to hit their overall mortality targets and catch limits.
Too many cod grabbed in out of state waters could push the fishery past those targets.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times