Saving Seafood

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.

2021 Spring Gulf of Maine Cooperative Bottom Longline Survey Concludes

July 13, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Gulf of Maine Cooperative Bottom Longline Survey has been conducted from two commercial fishing boats each spring and fall since 2014 by the science center’s Cooperative Research Branch. At each station environmental conditions are collected by sensors and a baited longline (1 nautical mile in length) is set and retrieved. Scientists then remove catch from the line and weigh, measure, and collect biological samples from the fish that come onboard.

Spiny dogfish, cusk, and haddock were the largest components of the catch, consistent with what has been seen in earlier surveys. Other species commonly caught included thorny skate, Atlantic cod, barndoor skate, white hake, and red hake. This season we also caught 17 Atlantic wolffish and seven Atlantic halibut. Both species are considered “data-poor” in terms of stock assessments. Staff also observed multiple instances of porbeagle sharks eating fish off the line.

Read the full release here

NEFMC Receives Cod Stock Structure and Groundfish ABC Control Rule Updates; Initiates Framework 63

June 28, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council covered three groundfish topics during its June 22-24, 2021 meeting that all addressed this year’s management priorities for Northeast multispecies. The Council:

  • Received an update on work being done to evaluate alternative acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rules for groundfish, also referred to as harvest control rules;
  • Initiated Framework Adjustment 63 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, which includes specifications and management measures for fishing years 2022 to 2024; and
  • Received a progress report on a two-part series of workshops related to Atlantic cod stock structure.

Read the full release here

2021 Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Workshops

May 25, 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 series of workshops on Atlantic cod from June 1-July 1.

This four-part series will focus on the science driving the decision to split Atlantic cod stocks into five distinct biological stocks, instead of the two that are currently managed. Stemming from the 2020 report by the Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group, this series will focus on the current science and management approaches to this fishery.

Presentations by technical experts will be followed by an open public discussion ensuring information is available to best inform the cod stock assessment process. There will be a follow-up series on the management implications of this split.

Registration is required to participate.

Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Workshops Scheduled for June, July 2021

May 21, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The biological stock structure of Atlantic cod and its implications for science and management will be discussed during two different rounds of public workshops. The first series, which begins on June 1, 2021, will cover the science aspects, while a second series, to be held later this year, will cover the management side.

An Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group was formed in early 2018 to inventory and summarize all relevant peer-reviewed information about the stock structure of Atlantic cod in U.S. and adjacent waters.

Atlantic cod currently is managed as two stocks – Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. However, the working group concluded in its 2020 report that the population of Atlantic cod in New England waters consists of five distinct biological stocks as follows:

  1. Georges Bank;
  2. Southern New England;
  3. Western Gulf of Maine and Cape Cod winter spawners;
  4. Western Gulf of Maine spring spawners that overlap spatially with the Western Gulf of Maine and Cape Cod winter spawner stock; and
  5. Eastern Gulf of Maine

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Scituate fishermen push to keep catch local

April 21, 2021 — Cod brought in by a Scituate fisherman doesn’t stay in town for long; it is loaded onto a truck and taken to New Bedford, cut into filets, trucked to the Boston Fish Pier and sold to the highest bidder, shipped to a retailer or restaurant and becomes dinner for someone hundreds of miles from where it was brought to shore.

It is far from the simple sea-to-table fishing industry that once thrived on the South Shore, but has since been overshadowed by a global marketplace that locals say they can’t compete with.

Now, the few remaining federally-permitted fishermen in Scituate are hoping to turn back the clock by partnering with a fish peddler to have fish caught by local fishermen processed and sold within a one-mile radius of the Scituate town pier. The fishermen say the system will reduce their shipping costs, reduce wholesale prices for local restaurants and bolster the economy of a harbor that has largely shifted away from the fishing industry.

“The fish coming out of Scituate Harbor is the best around, but it all goes to New Bedford and Boston, none of it stays here,” Phil Lynch, one of the four remaining federally-permitted fishermen in Scituate, said. “We’re hoping something like this here in town will work for us.”

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Maine Cod Fishery Posted Smallest Catch in History in 2020

April 5, 2021 — One of the oldest marine industries in the United States suffered the least productive year in its recorded history last year, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Maine cod fishery stretches back centuries but has been in dire straits in recent years because of tough new management measures and a lack of fish.

The 2020 fishery brought 58,730 pounds of fish to the docks. That is more than 20,000 pounds less than 2017, which previously was the least productive year. The fishery routinely topped 10 million pounds per year in the 1980s and early ’90s.

Members of the industry said the pandemic played a role in last year’s low total because of such factors as the disruption to the broader seafood industry and the closure of restaurants.

“We had a pretty lean year,” said Jodie York, general manager of Portland Fish Exchange, a Maine auction house. “It really is in large part due to the pandemic.”

The fishery has also struggled in recent years because of cod population levels that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has described as “significantly below target levels.” The cod population off New England has suffered due to past years of overfishing and environmental change, marine regulators have said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Overfishing of Atlantic cod likely did not cause genetic changes: study

April 5, 2021 — Overfishing likely did not cause the Atlantic cod, an iconic species, to evolve genetically and mature earlier, according to a study led by Rutgers University and the University of Oslo—the first of its kind—with major implications for ocean conservation.

“Evolution has been used in part as an excuse for why cod and other species have not recovered from overfishing,” said first author Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. “Our findings suggest instead that more attention to reducing fishing and addressing other , including , will be important for allowing recovery. We can’t use evolution as a scapegoat for avoiding the hard work that would allow cod to recover.”

The study, which focuses on Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) off Newfoundland in Canada and off Norway, appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, cod range from Greenland to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. In U.S. waters, cod is most common on Georges Bank and in the western Gulf of Maine, but both  are overfished. Cod can reach 51 inches long, weigh up to 77 pounds and live more than 20 years. Early explorers named Cape Cod in Massachusetts for the species because it was so abundant off New England, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Cod fishing season to reopen in Gulf of Maine while regulators consider industry’s future

April 5, 2021 — Federal fishing regulators are reopening the recreational fishery for cod in the Gulf of Maine for two weeks while they consider the future of the industry.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday that recreational anglers and for-hire vessel operators can harvest cod from the Gulf of Maine from April 1 to April 14. They’re limited to one cod per day.

Cod fishing was once the backbone of the New England economy, but the fishery collapsed after years of overfishing and is vulnerable to environmental changes. The New England Fishery Management Council has recommended status quo measures for recreational Gulf of Maine cod fishing for the 2021 fishing year, which starts May 1.

Read the full story at Central Maine