Saving Seafood

Atlantic cod stocks from the eyes of fishermen and scientists

April 9, 2024 — Scientists claim that Atlantic cod stocks are severely depleted in the Gulf of Maine, but on the other hand, fishermen look at the marine environment and see a thriving species that will be shipped and eaten around the world for years to come.

The question of how fishermen and marine scientists employed by government agencies can view cod stocks so differently has left Micah Dean, a Marine biologist with the Mass. Division of Marine Fisheries (MDMF) puzzled for years.  According to Northeastern Global News, Dean believed he discovered the answer when he was a doctoral student at Northeastern University.

He claimed that fishermen and scientists view the ocean depths with such different lenses that they are not viewing 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 shared.

The most common response they received from fishermen was that the population had increased.

According to the article from Northeastern Dean stated,  government scientists say that the Gulf of Maine cod stock has declined about 80% from 2005 to 2017 and is less than 5% of its target level, making it “severely depleted.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Too little, too late: the desperate search for cod babies

January 23, 2024 — Guðrún Bjarnadóttir Bech sings to herself while she sorts through baby fish with a pair of tweezers. “Ding! Ding! Ding!” she suddenly bursts out. “That’s a plaice,” she says – her reaction testament to how few she sees.

It is 2021 and Bech is working onboard the Jákup Sverri, a Faroese marine research ship that’s trawling for juvenile fish around the Faroe Islands in the north Atlantic to assess the state of populations including haddock, sand eel and Norwegian pout.

But there is one juvenile the scientists onboard are desperate to find: cod. The babies are minute, each measuring between 2mm and 25mm (0.08in to 1in). The smaller the individual, the more difficult it is to distinguish between different species. But as cod grow, their eyes and heads get bigger, and their skin, though still quite transparent, turns grey-green.

Read the full article at The Guardian

NOAA Weighs Cod Research Near Offshore Wind Projects

October 2, 2023 — An area south of the Island near where several offshore wind energy companies have secured leases could soon be studied due to the potential adverse effects on cod spawning grounds.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering creating a “Habitat Area of Particular Concern” designation for the area in and around offshore wind farms in southern New England, including Cox Ledge. The designation was recommended by interstate fishing officials to mitigate the environmental impacts of new wind farm projects.

Read the full article at the Vineyard Gazette

NOAA could designate cod habitat around Cox Ledge, wind power sites

September 27, 2023 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering whether to outline a “habitat area of particular concern’ in and around offshore wind lease areas off southern New England.

The proposal, originated by the New England Fishery Management Council over concerns of how wind development will affect essential fish habitat, would include Cox Ledge, an important bottom area for cod spawning. NOAA, the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, fishermen and wind power developers have grappled for years over how to build turbine arrays while protecting cod habitat in the region.

The often-bitter debate was one factor in the Sept. 1 mass resignation of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Advisory Board, whose members charged the state Coastal Resource Management Council is too deferential to wind development interests at the expense of habitat and fisheries impacts.

NOAA Fisheries on Sept. 26 published the proposal for a formal habitat of particular concern (HAPC) designation around Cox Ledge and wind energy leases in the Federal Register, opening a 30-day public comment period.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: NOAA restricts fishing cod along part of Massachusetts coast

August 1, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries has placed commercial fishing regulations for cod along the Gulf of Maine for the next month due to nearly reaching the maximum of allowable catch.

According to NOAA, fishermen have reached 90 percent of the allowable amount of cod fished along the northern coast of Massachusetts as well as in New Hampshire and Maine. Areas 513 and 514, in the image below, will stay closed to fishing for the remainder of Trimester 1, beginning Thursday, July 27, and reopening on September 1.

Read the full article at WWLP

UK: Will American Fish Save Our Chippies?

June 6, 2023 — BRITISH chippies battling soaring prices could start serving fish imported from the US by the end of this year.

A huge rise in the cost of cod and haddock, alongside a tariff on Russian white fish, is forcing firms to look for cheaper alternatives, including rockfish, also known as Pacific perch, and hake, which the US west coast has in abundance. They both taste similar to cod.

Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, visited Oregon last month as part of a delegation from the UK seafood industry. He said the huge surplus of fish in the US could ‘take the pressure off’ needing to find expensive supplies closer to home.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Study: Overfishing caused cod to evolve rapidly

June 5, 2023 — New genetic evidence suggests the overfishing of cod in the 1900s led the fish to rapidly evolve over decades, according to a study led by Rutgers University.

The study, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Science, shows that the collapse of cod stocks in the Atlantic due to overfishing may have spurred genetic changes that were previously thought to take place over millions of years.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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