June 1, 2020 — Commercial fishing for Atlantic cod is limited by closures off the coast of New England this spring, federal fishing managers said.
Cod were once the subject of one of the largest fisheries in the country, but it has collapsed after years of overfishing and is much smaller than it once was. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said cod protection closures in the Gulf of Maine are taking place throughout May and June. More are scheduled in the fall.
May 26, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet via webinar on Thursday, June 4, 2020. The public is invited to listen live. Here are the details.
May 11, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
An ad hoc sub-panel of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) and outside scientists will meet May 18-20, 2020 via webinar to conduct a peer review of the Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group’s report titled: An Interdisciplinary Review of Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua) Stock Structure in the Western North Atlantic Ocean.
START TIME: 9:00 a.m. daily.
WEBINAR REGISTRATION: Register for the webinar HERE.
CALL-IN OPTION: To listen by telephone, dial +1 (415) 655-0052. The access code is 805-785-106.
PEER REVIEW PANEL: The panel is made up of the following reviewers.
WORKING GROUP TERMS OF REFERENCE: The Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group was asked to inventory, summarize, and synthesize all relevant information to inform the most scientifically supported biological structure of Atlantic cod in U.S. waters using the following terms of reference (TORs).
COMMENTS: The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 14, 2020. Address comments to Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn or Executive Director Tom Nies and email them to comments@nefmc.org. The address for mailing comments is: New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill #2, Newburyport, MA 01950.
MATERIALS: Meeting materials are posted on the Council’s website at May 18-20, 2020 Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Peer Review. Here is the primary Technical Memo.
QUESTIONS: Contact Council Deputy Director Chris Kellogg at (978) 465-0492 ext. 112; ckellogg@nefmc.org, Joan O’Leary at (978) 465-0492 ext. 101, joleary@nefmc.org, or Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.
March 23, 2020 — Fisheries biologists used to rely on fishermen to tell them where fish were spawning and when. Fish are attracted to specific areas at certain times of the year, and fishermen find those important spawning grounds because the fishing is easy and the females come up bursting with eggs.
“Historically, researchers try to get in a good relationship with fishermen,” said Timothy Rowell, a research biologist with the passive acoustic research group at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole. “They have the best local knowledge of where (the fish) are aggregating and spawning.”
Although researchers still depend on fishermen, they also use ever more sophisticated technology to help them find and study fish in the immensity of the world’s oceans. That is true of a four-year $1.3 million study of spawning fish in the sprawling blocks of ocean southeast of Block Island that are zoned to build massive offshore wind farms.
NOAA, the state Division of Marine Fisheries, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology are all participating in the study, which is funded by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The research is focused on what may be one of the last remaining major seasonal spawning gatherings in the Northwest Atlantic, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.
March 16, 2020 — Atlantic cod on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland supported one of the world’s greatest fisheries for over three centuries. Yet this seemingly inexhaustible resource is in bad shape. Some stocks are now endangered and their survival could depend on removing a key predator, the grey seal.
This raises some difficult questions: How do we determine the value of one species over another, and what is the role of science in this conundrum?
My colleagues and I in the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia are fascinated by these questions. As an interdisciplinary group of economists, ecologists and social scientists, we commonly attribute values to animals in different ways. But determining whether to kill one animal to preserve another is less straightforward.
The collapse of the Grand Banks fisheries is considered one of the most significant failures in the history of natural resource management — akin to the ongoing degradation of the Amazon — and casts a long shadow over Canadian fisheries management.
March 12, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries scientists and colleagues have started a three-year study of Atlantic cod and other commercial fish species in Southern New England. Their goal is to gather baseline data to address how offshore wind development in the region could affect these animals.
An autonomous underwater glider is surveying areas in and around Cox’s Ledge. This includes the South Fork wind energy lease area south of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The glider has a hydrophone to detect fish spawning sounds and an acoustic telemetry receiver to detect tagged fish. The receiver will identify location and seasonal occurrence of hotspots for key commercial and federally listed fish species.
According to project lead Sofie Van Parijs, there is little information on Atlantic cod spawning specific to Southern New England waters. Cod elsewhere are known to form large, dense spawning aggregations in predictable locations relatively close to shore, where they can be vulnerable to disturbance that might affect spawning success. Van Parijs also heads the Passive Acoustics Research Group at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
“Biological sampling will determine the population’s onset of spawning and track growth, maturity, age structure, and other life history parameters,” Van Parijs said. “This information will help inform the starting date for our glider surveys each year. We will tentatively conduct these surveys from December through March this year and for longer periods in the subsequent two years.”
February 14, 2020 — Charging that New England fishery regulators are dominated by “deference to short-term economic interests,” the Conservation Law Foundation on Thursday filed a petition with the Department of Commerce seeking a halt to all directed fishing for Atlantic cod.
No fishing should be allowed until the New England Fishery Management Council and NMFS meet their legal obligation to end overfishing and rebuild the Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine cod stocks, the Boston-based environmental group says. Those steps should include 100 percent at-sea monitoring, area closures to protect spawning locations and habitat, and requiring selective groundfish gear, such as haddock separator trawls, the petition says.
The foundation wants a prohibition on directed commercial and recreational fishing using large area closures “once a stock’s incidental catch limit is caught.” The petition also calls for reducing “the incidental catch rate annually consistent with the current acceptable biological catch control rule until overfishing at sea is ended.”
“After decades of reckless decision-making, Atlantic cod populations are now in crisis,” said Shelley. “To give this iconic species a chance at survival and recovery, the federal government must take the strongest possible action today and temporarily prohibit further cod fishing.”
October 11, 2019 — The federal government on Wednesday released data showing that cod stocks in the area remain overfished and are not on target to be rebuilt by 2024. NOAA Fisheries also reported that “overfishing is occurring” among an already-depleted Gulf of Maine Atlantic cod population.
“Abundance is very low, not the way it used to be, so that’s obviously of great concern to us,” Division of Marine Fisheries Director David Pierce told the News Service after participating in “seafood day” activities Thursday to recognize the contributions of the fishing sector and the 90,000 jobs in the seafood industry.
Pierce said he had not yet reviewed the latest federal assessment, but said an industry-based survey and one in the works at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth will also influence cod quotas for 2021 and 2022.
“It’s a very important assessment. A lot hinges on it,” Pierce said. “The health of the Gulf of Maine groundfish fishery is very dependent on the health of that Gulf of Maine cod stock.”
Calling the report “concerning,” Sen. Bruce Tarr, who represents the fishing port city of Gloucester, told the News Service, “I’m still reading through the details but I think it points to the fact that we should be doing things differently than we are today.”
October 10, 2019 — Cod stocks in the area remain overfished and are not on target to be rebuilt by 2024, according to new federal data. In its latest stock status for the Gulf of Maine Atlantic cod, NOAA Fisheries also reported that “overfishing is occurring” among an already-depleted population. The status is unchanged from NOAA’s 2017 assessment.
“The Gulf of Maine Atlantic cod shows a truncated size and age structure, consistent with a population experiencing high mortality,” researchers wrote in a 208-page report released Wednesday. “Additionally, there are only limited signs of incoming recruitment, continued low survey indices, and the current spatial distribution of the stock is considerably less than its historical range within the Gulf of Maine.”
The cod assessment is part of an operational assessment, updated through 2018, of 14 Northeast groundfish stocks by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Cod was identified as a stock that is experiencing overfishing, and the report categorizes eight groundfish stocks as having been overfished.
June 19, 2019 — Canada’s Senate on Tuesday night passed C-68, a bill that amends the country’s more than 150-year-old core fishing legislation, to require rebuilding plans for depleted species populations among other important changes.
Just three of the country’s 105 senators voted against the measure, which now heads to the desk of governor-general Julie Payette for her signature, an act known as “royal assent”, bringing it almost immediately into effect.
“Today is a great day for our oceans. The overhauled Fisheries Act has the potential to be one of the most transformative things that has happened for our oceans in many years,” said Josh Laughren, executive director of Oceana Canada.
Just 34% (66 of 194 stocks) of commercial fish populations in Canada are healthy, while 13% (26 stocks) are critically depleted, only five of which have rebuilding plans (Atlantic cod in the Bay of Fundy/Scotian Shelf; boccaccio rockfish; two yelloweye rockfish groups and northern shrimp in fishing area 6, off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador).