GLOUCESTER, Mass. — March 30, 2013 — Tagging studies, underwater videos and recordings of cod vocalizations — could provide a crucial answer to bringing this iconic fish stock back to healthy population levels by protecting them as they reproduce.
Five years ago, a state fisheries employee was on a busman's holiday: fishing in 170 feet of water near a small gravel sandbar 3 miles east of Gloucester, happily hauling up one large cod after another.
He had discovered the epicenter of a mass of spawning cod, possibly 30,000 fish, that returned to this spot every spring.
State fisheries scientists realized this was a unique opportunity to observe spawning cod in the wild so, in 2009, they set up an underwater laboratory at the site.
What they have since found — through tagging studies, underwater videos and recordings of cod vocalizations — could provide a crucial answer to bringing this iconic fish stock back to healthy population levels by protecting them as they reproduce.
"Killing them where they spawn is a great way to drive a species to extinction," said Sofie Van Parijs, the passive acoustics program director with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole.
Cod stocks haven't been doing well, despite nearly two decades of the most restrictive fishing regulations in the country. Those regulations have traditionally been driven by the theory that fishing limits allow more fish to survive and reproduce, increasing stocks over time.
But that logic has largely failed cod. The population remains at less than 20 percent of where scientists believe it should be after a nearly 20-year effort to revive them. Fishermen face up to 77 percent cuts in their annual quota this May.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times