March 22, 2013 — In a welcome surprise but one with potentially complex implications, Gulf of Maine cod have returned in notable concentrations to Stellwagen Bank and are being landed with plentiful yellowtail flounder by the inshore fleet.
According to NOAA stock assessments, both cod and yellowtail have been severely weakened by overfishing, and catch limits for the fishing season beginning May 1 are facing severe cutbacks. Cod landings would be reduced 77 percent and Gulf of Maine yellowtail landings would be cut by 53 percent.
The adjustments have been voted by the New England Fishery Management Council, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is made up of at large appointees from the industry, state officials and the regional administrator of NOAA, John Bullard. The cuts are based on scientific reports and analysis, but Bullard has the authority to do what he wants so long as it is consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act mandate — to protect the resources of the sea and, in a delicate balancing act, also ensure maximum sustainable yield for the economy.
Draconian cutbacks in the face of ample cod would all but disable the industry due to the requirement to stop fishing for all groundfish once the quota of any one of them is taken, hence the potential that a return of larger numbers of inshore cod, if combined with the likely 77 cutback in landings from 2011, could effectively shutdown the fishery via the “too much of a good thing” syndrome.
The impact of the changes were reflected in the price of cod quota, which hovered about $1 per pound last year but this year crashed to 10 cents.
“Everybody has it to sell, but nobody can catch it,” until last month when surprisingly, Gulf of Maine cod made a dramatic return, said an industry analyst.
Vito Giacalone, who runs the permit bank and is on the board of the seafood coalition, said he was not surprised, and said government regulators should not be either.
“Fish come and fish go,” he said in an email. “Regime shifts have always occurred on the highly dynamic Stellwagen Bank and surrounding basins. Sand lance abundance and location have had a lot to say about how much sea life activity is on the bank, but that doesn’t always mean cod. Other factors not well known to fishermen or scientists alike apparently determine why and when cod dominate the area like they did during that seven-year period that everyone now thinks was normal when in fact is was the first extended period I’d ever seen.
“Most of us that have been around long enough know that this is all a big natural cycle and we should not be surprised that when the fish leave the area, things go back to a different normal,” he said,
“One thing is for sure: the large adult cod seen in the Gulf of Maine at huge concentrations since 2003 have been fished under strict regulations and quota management,” Giacalone continued. “Many, many, more survived than were caught, regardless of how fickle the science has been. We know it because we see it and live it firsthand, not on a computer model.
“The fish are out there and now it’s no surprise they reappeared.”
“The system is broken because it has no way to accommodate the known variability in catch rates,” he said. “The system does not distinguish between low catch rates and low abundance. They are not necessarily a signal of one another.”
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times