Saving Seafood

Proposed cod cuts to cost Gloucester fleet

December 9, 2021 — To help rebuild what NOAA scientists say is a Georges Bank cod stock that is overfished, the New England Fishery Management Council on Wednesday unanimously set new rules that would drastically reduce the cod catch in the fishing year 2022 that begins May 1. The cuts could cost the Gloucester fleet $1 million in revenue.

The council set limits on both commercial and recreational Georges Bank cod fisheries as it voted to pass along all components of so-called Framework 63 management measures to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which still has to approve this package of recommendations.

After several hours of debate and several back-and-forth amendments, the council declined to remand back to its Scientific and Statistical Committee its recommendations on a 57% lower acceptable biological catch of Georges Bank cod.

New England Fishery Management Council member Elizabeth “Libby” Etrie, program director of the fishing membership organization Northeast Service Sector, Inc. of Gloucester, appeared to have found a compromise position between a remand, which could have delayed the implementation of new fishing rules, and setting a 754 metric ton cod catch for three years, as the scientific panel had originally recommended.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fishery groups question cod limits

December 8, 2021 — Two fishing industry trade associations are asking the New England Fishery Management Council to reevaluate its drastically reduced catch limit recommendations on Georges Bank cod.

The groups, the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition and the Associated Fisheries of Maine, say the New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee lacked “relevant information” to make its determination on an Acceptable Biological Catch for Georges Bank cod. They are asking for a remand.

The New England Fishery Management Council is meeting through Thursday, Dec. 9. It plans to discuss its Scientific and Statistical Committee’s recommendations on overfishing limits and acceptable biological catches for several species — including Georges Bank cod and Gulf of Maine cod — for 2022-2024 on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 10:45 a.m.

You can find a link to join the webinar for the council’s meeting here: https://www.nefmc.org/calendar/december-2021-council-meeting.

The Newburyport-based New England Fishery Management Council is charged under federal legislation with conserving and managing fishery resources off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

“Why are these assessments not reflecting what fishermen are seeing on the water?” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the nonprofit Northeast Seafood Coalition, which represents commercial fishing interests in the northeastern United States. She said the council will be discussing two critical stocks in Georges Bank cod and Gulf of Maine cod. She said there is uncertainty about the assessment of both stocks.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Alaska residents’ salmon permits down 50 percent since 1975

October 13, 2021 — The preliminary value to fishermen of the nearly 41 million salmon caught this summer at Alaska’s largest fishery at Bristol Bay is nearly $248 million, 64 percent above the 20-year average. That figure will be much higher when bonuses and other price adjustments are paid out.

But as with the fish bucks tallied from Alaska’s cod, pollock, flounders and other groundfish, the bulk of the Bay’s salmon money won’t be circulating through Alaska’s economy because most of the fishing participants live out of the state.

In 2017, for example, 62 percent of gross earnings from the Bristol Bay driftnet fishery and 40 percent from the setnet fishery left Alaska as nonresident earnings.

That’s due to the region experiencing an overall 50 percent decline in local permit holdings since Alaska began limiting entry into commercial salmon fisheries in 1975. Combined, residents of the Bristol Bay region now hold less than one-quarter of the region’s salmon permits.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Baltic Sea fishing quotas agreed for 2022 with huge cuts in the cod catch

October 13, 2021 — The Council for the European Union reached an agreement on next year’s fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea at the latest AGRIFISH Council meeting in Luxembourg this week, with some total allowable catch (TAC) levels still exceeding scientific recommendations.

Following much of the European Commission’s proposal published in August, substantial quota reductions have been made for multiple stocks, including an 88 percent cut for western Baltic cod to just 489 metric tons (MT).

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

NOAA Fisheries Announces Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock Recreational Regulations for 2021

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

NOAA Fisheries is announcing that current Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod and haddock recreational measures will remain in place for the remainder of fishing year 2021, which ends April 30. 2022.

The recreational fishery for GOM cod and haddock is managed under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (Plan). The Plan includes a proactive recreational accountability measure, which allows the Regional Administrator, in consultation with the New England Fishery Management Council, to develop recreational management measures for the fishing year to ensure that the recreational quotas are achieved, but not exceeded. We project that current measures for GOM cod and haddock should prevent the recreational fishery’s quotas from being exceeded.

Read the full release here

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.

Where have all the codfish in the Gulf of Maine gone?

July 30, 2021 — The “New World” was built on the codfish. In the 1600s, John Smith built a colony of fishermen on the Isles of Shoals off Strawberry Bank, New Hampshire.  According to his writings, the cod were so plentiful that you could walk across the water on their backs.

While this is obviously a huge exaggeration, there were a lot of cod.

Without means of refrigeration, salted fish was the best way to ship large amounts of protein to countries throughout the world without worry of spoilage. The colony of fishermen on the Isles of Shoals spent their days fishing, cutting and salting the cod for shipment to England.

What happened to the iconic New England cod?

The entire colonial economy in New England was built around this iconic fish. So much so that the weathervane atop the State House in Massachusetts is a golden codfish.

So, what has happened to the cod?  If you are a recreational fisherman, you know that you are allowed only one fish per day at certain times during the year. The commercial fishermen have all been given a personal quota for cod.  If they reach their quota, they need to purchase or lease more quota from someone who has extra. The price to “lease” these fish in order to catch them can be exorbitant.

To keep fishing for other fish, many of the commercial fishermen must pay more for leased cod than they can sell the actual fish for. Cod has become a commodity on the market being bought or hoarded by non-fishermen to make money off the backs of the active fishermen.

Read the full story at SeaCoast Online