Saving Seafood

Are cod ‘severely depleted’ in the Gulf of Maine? Why fishermen, scientists view ocean depths differently

February 16, 2023 — When fishermen and women look at the gray Atlantic waters off New England, they see a marine environment literally swimming with cod, the popular white fish prized around the world for its mild flavor.

Scientists, on the other hand, say Atlantic cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine are severely depleted and possibly vulnerable to extinction.

The question of how fishermen and marine scientists employed by government agencies can view cod numbers so differently has puzzled Micah Dean, a marine biologist with the state of Massachusetts, for years.

While a doctoral student at Northeastern University, Dean believed he came up with an answer.

In a paper published recently by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences—appropriately titled “Lost in Translation”—Dean says that fishermen and scientists view the ocean depths with such different lenses that they are literally not seeing the same things.

“We did a telephone survey and we asked commercial fishermen, over the last 10 years, do you think the cod population in the Gulf of Maine has gone down a lot, gone down a little, stayed the same, gone up a little or gone up a lot,” Dean says.

Read the full article at Northeastern Global News

Panel: Fishing plan can rebuild long lost cod stock by 2033

January 5, 2022 — Federal ocean regulators say a new fishing plan has a chance to rebuild the New England cod stock, which is a goal even many commercial fishermen have long regarded as far fetched.

Atlantic cod were once a cornerstone of the New England economy, but the catch has plummeted after years of overfishing, environmental changes and restrictive quotas. Most of the cod sold in the U.S. comes from overseas because many American fishermen avoid the fish-and-chips staple altogether.

But the regulatory New England Fishery Management Council has approved a new strategy that it said has a 70% chance of rebuilding the stock by 2033. The proposal, which is awaiting final approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would use 10 years of low catch limits to try to rebuild the cod population in the Gulf of Maine.

The council said in a statement that the new plan will lower the fishing mortality rate for the fish over the next decade to “offer more protection for Gulf of Maine cod and give the stock a better chance of rebuilding.” But some fishermen are unconvinced cod are ever coming back.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

 

Fishing regulators fear wind turbines could threaten spawning area for Atlantic cod

October 11, 2022 — Scientists identified spawning cod in a large area currently leased for offshore wind development, prompting fisheries regulators to declare the habitat a “high priority” and raising concerns that some projects could derail the decade-long effort to rebuild the struggling commercial fishery.

The designation by the New England Fishery Management Council was submitted to the federal NOAA Fisheries in August and is now pending final approval. Those involved say it is the most declarative action taken by the regional council in its approach to the emerging wind energy industry, highlighting its “concern over potential adverse impacts from offshore wind development.”

“We want to make it very clear that there are important fishery resources in this area,” said council spokesperson Janice Plante. “We hope that it creates an extra layer of consideration as these projects go forward.”

The boundaries of the designation, which is called a Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC), is roughly 3,000 square miles and spans all nine wind-energy lease areas in federal waters off Southern New England. It includes a buffer zone beyond the lease areas, “recognizing that some types of development activities can generate impacts at scales of tens of kilometers beyond the site of construction and operations.”

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

The Secret To Better Fisheries Management Is Hidden In Their DNA

August 10, 2022 — DNA sequencing has gotten to be a lot less expensive and that has opened the door for many different uses. It is now relatively cheap to have your own DNA evaluated by services like 23andme or MyHeritage or Ancestry.com. You can learn about your ethnic background and even get connected with relatives you never knew. Sometimes there are surprises. While oral or written family histories are often incomplete or “sanitized,” the DNA record is fully transparent. It is also increasingly possible to learn about potential health risks you may have inherited.

There is an interesting application of DNA sequencing for tracking the “ethnicity” for ocean dwelling fish. Of course in that case it isn’t the fish who want the information – it’s the government agencies around the world who are responsible for managing ocean “fisheries” – the populations of wild fish that make up a significant part of the human food supply of protein and which provide healthy omega-3 fats and important minerals. According to a paper published in 2020 in the journal Nature titled “The Future of Food From the Sea,” humans currently derive 59 million metric tonnes of “food from the sea” of which 84% is from wild caught fisheries, and 16% is from “mariculture” – farmed fish and bivalves. That represents 17% of the global edible meat supply. By 2050 that amount is expected to increase to between 80 and 103 million metric tonnes, mostly through increases in mariculture. Even so, wild caught fish are still expected to provide between 56% and 71% of the 2050 total.

Humans have been harvesting ocean dwelling fish for centuries, and the ecosystems that support those fish are able to maintain a viable population even under a significant degree of human fishing pressure. However, there are historical examples of problematic overfishing such as the population of Atlantic cod that was once abundant off the coast of the US and Canada but which had collapsed by 1992.

Read the full article at Forbes

Haul of Atlantic cod, once abundant, reaches new low

May 10, 2022 — One of the oldest fishing industries in the U.S. sank to a new low in catch last year, signaling that efforts to rebuild the fishery still have a long way to go.

New England fishermen have caught Atlantic cod for centuries, but the catch has dwindled over the last decade due to overfishing, restrictive fishing quotas, and environmental changes. The vast majority of the fish come to the docks in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Maine fishermen brought fewer cod to the docks last year than any other in recorded history, state regulators said earlier this month. The state’s catch, which was more than 20 million pounds in the early 1990s, was less than 50,000 pounds last year, state records show.

Cod are the fish of choice for fish and chips in the U.S., but the industry’s collapse has left the country dependent on imports from countries such as Iceland. Russia is another major exporter, but the U.S. banned imports of Russian seafood due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at News Center Maine

 

New England Fishery Management Council to meet for three days next week

January 28, 2022 — The New England Fishery Management Council will hold its February meeting over the course of three days next week with opportunities for the public to listen live and provide input.

The council will also devote the meeting’s third day meeting to groundfish issues, allowing for extensive discussion of the final report from the Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Workshops, and important issues related to the 2023 Atlantic Cod Research Track Assessment, according to a press release. The council will also make recommendations on recreational measures for Gulf of Maine cod and Gulf of Maine haddock for the 2022 fishing year.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

Request for Comments on Petition for Rulemaking for Atlantic Cod

August 18, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries published a notice of receipt of a petition for rulemaking that was submitted in June 2020 by the Conservation Law Foundation. This petition requests we prepare a Secretarial Amendment and take specific emergency action to end overfishing and rebuild Atlantic cod.

This notice provides the public 45 days to comment on the petition for rulemaking.  To review and comment on the notice and associated documents, please go to our online portal and enter NOAA-NMFS-2021-0039 in the search box.

For more information read the notice as published in the Federal Register.

Questions?

Industry: Contact Peter Christopher, Supervisory Fishery Policy Analyst, 978-281-9288

Media: Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, 978-281-9103

Cod study could lead to better management

August 12, 2021 — When the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute opened its doors in 2013, the first major project undertaken by its researchers focused on the gene sequencing of the region’s iconic species of Atlantic cod.

It was fitting. The species was the very lifeblood of the regional groundfish fishery through centuries and the economic engine that drove the commercial fishing industry through its halcyon era.

The cod project led to GMGI’s first published paper in 2017. Four years later, GMGI researchers have built on that first study by publishing a second manuscript detailing the development of a new genetic tool to help distinguish between spring-spawning and winter-spawning cod, as well as males and females, in the western Gulf of Maine.

The study, published in the August edition of the journal “Ecology and Evolution” could prove a boon to marine researchers and fishery biologists by bringing sharper resolution to stock assessments and applying the best science to understand the complex fishery, said Tim O’Donnell, a senior research associate at GMGI and lead author on the study.

“The original work at GMGI was pretty similar to this, but they used a slightly different technique and way fewer individuals (cod),” O’Donnell said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

2021 Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Management Workshops Series to Begin on August 12th

August 4, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The 2021 Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Management Workshop Series is about to begin. Five separate workshops have been scheduled between August 12 and September 20. Each has its own theme, but all of the workshops are based on two common threads: (1) the new understanding that Atlantic cod may consist of five distinct biological stocks instead of two – Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank – as currently is the case; and (2) outcomes from the June series of Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Science and Assessment Workshops.

The objectives of this management-focused series are to:

  • Identify potential options for cod management measures;
  • Examine the advantages and disadvantages of the options;
  • Identify socioeconomic impacts that should be evaluated.

Read the full release here

2021 Atlantic Cod Stock Management Workshops

July 30, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The New Hampshire Sea Grant, New England Fishery Management Council, and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center will be hosting a workshop series focusing on the management implications of restructuring Atlantic cod stocks from August 12 – September 20.

This five-part series will focus on the management implications of a potential split in Atlantic cod stocks into five distinct biological stocks, instead of the two that are currently managed. These workshops follow up on the previous series that focused on the science behind the decision and draws from the 2020 report by the Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group.

Presentations by technical experts will be followed by an open public discussion ensuring information is available to best inform the cod stock assessment process.

Registration is required to participate.