Saving Seafood

US cod catch could soon make a comeback, NOAA says

January 19, 2018 — Atlantic cod catch in the United States was recorded at an all-time historical low in 2016, but a rebound for the fishery may be on the horizon, according to officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Once a hallmark of New England’s commercial fishing sector, the Atlantic cod fishery has suffered plummeting catch volumes due to overfishing and environmental changes over recent years, The Associated Press reported, via The Bangor Daily News. However, cod stocks are showing some promising signs for the upcoming season, NOAA officials said, and quotas are on track to increase slightly in spring of 2018.

Cod fishermen in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank can expect a bump in their quotas come 1 May. That’s a step in the right direction, Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said.

“The quotas are so constraining that there’s not a lot of opportunity and interest in targeting cod,” Martens told the Associated Press. “But we’re headed in the right direction.”

Considered a “choke species” by fishermen, once cod quotas are reached, fishing must cease outright. As such, many fishermen have been avoiding cod altogether, the AP reported.

Recent marine analysis has indicated more abundance of cod in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, Jamie Cournane, groundfish plan coordinator with the New England Fishery Management Council, an arm of NOAA, told the AP. Such figures have prompted the council to propose doubling the commercial cod quota for both New England areas to nearly 3.9 million pounds, a move that’s still awaiting U.S. Department of Commerce approval, Cournane said.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Why New England’s cod catch is at an all-time low

January 15, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — America’s catch of cod is at an all-time low, but the fishery might finally experience a rebound in the coming fishing year.

Atlantic cod were once the backbone of New England’s commercial fishing fleet, but catch has plummeted in the wake of overfishing and environmental changes. The 2016 catch, which is the most recent to be fully tabulated, was the lowest in recorded history, according to statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But NOAA officials said there are some positive signs for the cod stock, and quotas are set to increase slightly this spring after years of heavy cutbacks. Fishermen seek cod in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank, and both areas are scheduled for quota bumps on May 1.

“The quotas are so constraining that there’s not a lot of opportunity and interest in targeting cod,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. “But we’re headed in the right direction.”

The U.S. cod fishery, based mostly in Massachusetts and Maine, brought in more than 100 million pounds (45.4 million kilograms) of fish per year in the early 1980s and bottomed out at 3.2 million pounds (1.45 million kilograms) in 2016. Scientists have blamed factors including years of heavy harvest and warming oceans for the collapse of the stock.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe