Cod Archives - Page 4 of 54

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

ALASKA: Council’s Swift Action on BSAI Cod Shuts Down Efforts to Restore Adak’s Seafood Economy

June 24, 2021 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council moved quickly to adopt a preliminary preferred alternative (PPA) to rationalize the last major race for fish in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands — trawl-caught Pacific cod — which also relegated Adak’s state-of-the-art seafood plant to the bottom of the pile in terms of access to the resource.

“I am announcing today that, based on the Council’s preliminary preferred alternative in the CV [catcher-vessel] trawl package, Peter Pan Seafood Company is suspending all further work in Adak,” said Steve Minor, Manager of Business Development for Peter Pan, on the day after the Council approved the motion.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Oregon fishing families face climate change impacts

June 7, 2021 — For four generations Kevin and Taunette Dixon’s families have followed the rhythm of the sea: Harvesting groundfish, such as cod and pollock, early in the year. Pink shrimp beginning in April, sometimes followed by albacore in the fall. Then, Dungeness crab, Oregon’s biggest and most lucrative fishery, just in time to bring in holiday cash.

It’s been the same for fishing families up and down the Oregon Coast.

But the ocean is changing, and with it, life in tight-knit coastal communities.

For the past six years, Oregon’s traditional Dec. 1 Dungeness opening has been significantly delayed because elevated domoic acid levels make the crab unsafe to eat.

The toxin comes from harmful algal blooms caused by marine heatwaves, which are increasing in frequency and intensity.

The warming planet can actually fill the catch with poison.

And this is only one effect of climate change.

Oregon now has a regular “hypoxia season,” when ocean oxygen levels near the sea floor plummet and some sea life flees the region or dies.

In 2017, a huge hypoxia event occurred off Washington. The next year it extended into Oregon, resulting in almost no halibut caught. Over the next two years, Oregon commercial crabbers reported pulling up pot after pot of dead, suffocated crabs.

Read the full story from the Salem Statesman Journal at USA Today

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:

Georges Bank;
Southern New England;
Western Gulf of Maine and Cape Cod winter spawners;
Western Gulf of Maine spring spawners that overlap spatially with the Western Gulf of Maine and Cape Cod winter spawner stock; and
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

Cod stocks creep back up for Gulf of Alaska, but remain down for Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands

April 15, 2021 — Pacific cod stocks have begun to rebound in the Gulf of Alaska, but the total allowable catch (TAC) for 2021 remains low at 17,321 metric tons. Last year, managers curtailed the fishery in federally managed waters after stock assessments put the biomass near the bottom of the threshold for conducting the fishery.

Though recruitment of younger cod and uncaught fish from last year have added to the abundance in most recent assessments, full recovery of the stock could take years. The warm-water “blob” of 2014 has been blamed for the crash.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Climate Change Raises Risk of Prey Mismatch for Young Cod in Alaska

April 9, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

For a young Pacific cod, first feeding is a life-or-death moment. Cod larva are nourished by a yolk sac after they hatch. Once the yolk sac is depleted, they must find food within days in order to survive. If there is no prey available during that critical window for first feeding, young fish face starvation.

Warming Alaska waters are increasing the risk of prey mismatch and starvation for cod larvae, a new study finds.

NOAA Fisheries scientists collaborated with our partners to look at how temperature shifts affected first feeding Pacific cod larvae in two large ecosystems: the southeast Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The models made predictions for 1998–2019, a period that encompassed warm and cool years, including a series of extreme heatwave events beginning in 2014.

“Warming can increase the metabolic demands of fish and shift the timing of their food production. So you have temperature unravelling the system, moving food around. And you have fish needing food now. When mismatched prey timing and increased metabolic demand line up, it can be pretty disastrous,” said Ben Laurel, NOAA Fisheries scientist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, who led the study. “The better we can understand and predict these effects, the more effectively we can manage them now and in the future.”

Read the full release here

Alaska cod: Gulf cod stocks creep back, but Bering and Aleutian still down

April 5, 2021 — Pacific cod stocks have begun to rebound in the Gulf of Alaska, but the TAC for 2021 remains low at 17,321 metric tons. Last year managers curtailed the fishery in federally managed waters after stock assessments put the biomass near the bottom of the threshold for conducting the fishery.

Though the recruitment of younger cod and the uncaught fish from last year have added to the abundance in most recent assessments, full recovery of the stock could take years. The warm-water blob of 2014 has been blamed for the crash.

The warming waters began in 2013 and precipitated a 79 percent decline in the stocks. Prevalent theories suggest that warmer waters raise the metabolic rates for the young cod. At the same time the forage species for young cod appeared to have higher concentrations of protein and lower concentrations of fat. More recent studies determined that the eggs of cod survive in a narrow range of temperature (3 to 6 degrees C, or 37.4 to 42.8 degrees F).

Stocks also continue to decline in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands harvest areas. The 2021 TAC for the Bering Sea has been set at 111,380 metric tons with a TAC of 13,796 metric tons for the Aleutian Islands.

The 2020 TACs for the respective areas had been set at 141,799 metric tons and 14,214 metric tons.

Read the full story at National Fisherman