Saving Seafood

NEFMC to repackage new cod regulations, delay other priorities

July 11, 2025 — Frustrated members of the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) have voted to delay work on three priority groundfish projects in order to repackage and resubmit new cod fishery regulations, which were rejected at the last minute by the U.S. federal government on procedural grounds.

“Obviously, this is very frustrating, especially to everyone who put so much work into this effort,” Council Member Alan Tracey said at a June meeting. “It’s another example of where we’re put in a position where we really have no choice.”

The NEFMC has been working on a major change to New England’s commercial cod fishery, transitioning from a two-stock management plan to a four-stock management plan. The new plan would set separate catch limits for each stock – the Eastern Gulf of Maine, Western Gulf of Maine, Southern New England, and Georges Bank stocks – allowing regulators to more precisely manage the sustainability of the fishery.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New England For-Hire Groundfish Fleet Partners with NOAA Fisheries to Improve Cod Data

June 3, 2025 — Atlantic cod is a classic New England fish, found everywhere from roadside fish-and-chip stands to the Massachusetts State House. Under the Magnuson–Stevens Act, NOAA Fisheries fosters the long-term biological and economic sustainability of marine fisheries, including rebuilding overfished stocks. Currently Atlantic cod is considered overfished and rebuilding plans are in place to promote population growth. We recently teamed up with recreational fishermen and other partners to learn more about this iconic species.

Advancements in Understanding Cod Populations

The latest model of cod stock structure based on scientific advances in genetics, tagging, and biological characterization shows there are five biologically distinct cod populations from New Jersey to Canada, and four stock units. This new model allows managers to better tailor management to the specific needs of each stock to help populations recover.

Recreational Biological Sampling Fills Data Gaps

In light of these advancements, stock assessment scientists needed more biological data from the recreational fishing fleet. NOAA Fisheries teamed up with members of New England’s recreational for-hire fleet, the New England Aquarium, Pelagic Strategies, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to fill those data gaps. The pilot study is called the Recreational Biological Sampling Program, or RecBio.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Lutnick rejects plan to split New England’s cod stock – for now

June 2, 2025 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has rejected the New England Fishery Management Council’s (NEFMC) plan to split the region’s cod population into four separate stocks, claiming it doesn’t ally with federal regulations.

NEFMC voted in December 2024 to pass Amendment 25, which would divide New England’s cod population into four distinct stocks: Eastern Gulf of Maine, Western Gulf of Maine, Southern New England, and Georges Bank. According to NEFMC, splitting the population would give fisheries regulators the ability to set allowable catch limits (ACLs) for each stock separately, giving them more fine control in how they manage the species.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Lutnick rejects NOAA rule to revise Atlantic cod management plan

May 29, 2025 — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick rejected a scientifically vetted regulation to help protect Atlantic cod Wednesday, citing concerns about the proposed rule’s interference with a national policy to achieve “optimum yield” of highly sought-after commercial fish species.

The regulation — known as Amendment 25 — was crafted by the New England Fishery Management Council and supported by conservation organizations that said it was essential to accurately monitor cod populations that continue to be overfished.

It was opposed by two fishing industry groups that said the amendment needed to be reworked in a more “deliberative and informed way,” including language about annual catch limits and other restrictions.

Read the full article at E&E News

Commerce rejects New England council’s cod amendment

May 29, 2025 — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik disapproved the New England Fishery Management Council’s proposed Amendment 25 to the Northeast groundfish plan, sending it back to the council for revisions – or developing a new amendment.

The council proposed dividing the present two cod stocks into four geographic units, with new, separate annual catch limits (ACLs) for each units. The plan was protested by New England fishermen after the council’s approval in December 2024.

“These restrictions are going to be the end of the trawlers and anyone else buying fish,” New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) CEO Jerry Leeman said then. “Everyone in the fisheries expects Addendum 25 to torpedo their businesses.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced Lutnik’s decision in a May 28 statement. The amendment is disapproved “on the basis 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,” according to the agency.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

NOAA slowdowns and new science delay the usual ‘scramble’ to set fishing catch limits

March 26, 2025 — The start of this year’s commercial fishing season could be a bust for fishermen who catch groundfish species like cod, haddock and flounder.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has yet to approve new catch limits for the season slated to open May 1. People in the fishing industry said the annual process has been delayed by changes to the science used to measure cod populations, and the Trump administration’s cuts to the agency.

Scallop fishery regulations also won’t be finalized by the season’s start on April 1. But since there aren’t new regulatory strategies under consideration like with cod, there are default catch limits in place for scallops. Scallopers are facing just 10 fewer fishing days at the start of the season.

Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney representing the Sustainable Scalloping Fund, said this “doesn’t have much of an impact” on the fishery. He’s expecting new limits to be approved within a week of the start of the season.

Scalloper Eric Hansen of New Bedford said he’s cautiously optimistic about an approval coming soon. He remembers a similar slowdown when the Biden administration took over four years ago.

“ If history repeats itself, it won’t be catastrophic,” he said. “And that’s a big if.”

Read the full article at wbur

Codfish regulators should consider effects on fishermen’s lives, researcher says

January 27, 2025 — New England’s cod industry would benefit if its regulators pay more attention to how their decisions affect fishermen and their communities, a Northeastern University researcher says.

In a presentation at UMass Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology last week, Jonathan Grabowski said management decisions for the cod fishery have been based on trawl surveys to estimate fish populations, plus economic and environmental factors.

Yet federal and regional fisheries management officials have not as readily included the social impacts of their decisions on fishermen and their communities.

Fishermen have experienced high levels of stress and social disruption as the cod industry has declined due to overfishing and ineffective conservation measures. Meanwhile, their distrust in regulators has increased, he said.

Using more social and experiential data from these fishermen could allow regulators to make better management decisions, Grabowski said. That could help the fishery function better, improve outcomes for the industry, conserve environmental resources, and rebuild trust.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

NEFMC moves forward with cod changes despite fishermen’s protest

December 13, 2024 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has moved forward with Framework Adjustment 69, approving changes to the region’s cod fishery that fishermen claim will cause dire circumstances for the industry.

The council selected a series of preferred alternatives for Framework 69 of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan, which governs the region’s groundfishing stocks, including cod, haddock, flounder, hake, and pollock. Part of that framework was Amendment 25, which will change how cod is managed in the region and institute four separate cod stocks instead of the current two.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Groundfish: NEFMC Takes Final Action on Framework 69 With Catch Limits for Four New Atlantic Cod Stock Units

December 10, 2024 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council took final action on Framework Adjustment 69 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan when it met in Newport, Rhode Island December 3-5, 2024. The framework contains catch limits and management measures for the 2025 fishing year and beyond.

The Council received three reports before beginning its decision-making on Framework 69:

  • The Northeast Fisheries Science Center presented the peer-reviewed results of 2024 Management Track Stock Assessments for American plaice, pollock, witch flounder, Atlantic halibut, Georges Bank haddock, and Gulf of Maine haddock;
  • The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) presented overfishing limit (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) recommendations for each of those newly assessed stocks; and
  • The Transboundary Management Guidance Committee (TMGC) presented recommendations for U.S./Canada shared groundfish resources on Georges Bank.

Read the full release from the New England Fishery Management Council

Oceanographers record the largest predation event ever observed in the ocean

November 4, 2024 — There is power in numbers, or so the saying goes. But in the ocean, scientists are finding that fish that group together don’t necessarily survive together. In some cases, the more fish there are, the larger a target they make for predators.

This is what MIT and Norwegian oceanographers observed recently when they explored a wide swath of ocean off the coast of Norway during the height of spawning season for capelin—a small Arctic fish about the size of an anchovy. Billions of capelin migrate each February from the edge of the Arctic ice sheet southward to the Norwegian coast, to lay their eggs. Norway’s coastline is also a stopover for capelin’s primary predator, the Atlantic cod. As cod migrate south, they feed on spawning capelin, though scientists have not measured this process over large scales until now.

Reporting their findings in Communications Biology, the MIT team captured interactions between individual migrating cod and spawning capelin, over a huge spatial extent. Using a sonic-based wide-area imaging technique, they watched as random capelin began grouping together to form a massive shoal spanning tens of kilometers. As the capelin shoal formed a sort of ecological “hotspot,” the team observed individual cod begin to group together in response, forming a huge shoal of their own. The swarming cod overtook the capelin, quickly consuming over 10 million fish, estimated to be more than half of the gathered prey.

Read the full article at PHYS.org