September 29, 2014 — There is fresh news out of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regarding the status of Gulf of Maine cod, and the outlook isn’t good. Atlantic cod, the mainstay of New England fisheries for more than 400 years, is now at 3 percent to 4 percent of its target levels.
On the heels of a dramatic 78 percent reduction in fishing quotas that went into effect in 2013, it is likely that further, even more severe, fishing restrictions will be needed to revive this iconic stock.
Cod landings and biomass in the Gulf of Maine have fluctuated dramatically for as long as we have records. Some of this is because of environmental conditions, and some is because of past fishery management decisions that led to decades of overfishing.
Today, despite a wealth of survey data, a sophisticated process to estimate the number of fish and determine catch levels and a fishery that now operates well within these limits, we find ourselves with a cod stock that remains drastically overfished and unresponsive to our best rebuilding efforts.
This story may sound familiar. In 1992, the Canadian government called for a moratorium on cod fishing in Newfoundland in response to a similar decline in their stocks. The expectation was that cod would respond promptly to this strictest of measures and that fishermen would be back to work within a few years.
Read the full story form the Portland Press Herald