November 19, 2014 — While some spawning areas are closed to trawling and gill-netting, lobster traps would still be allowed.
Federal regulators voted Wednesday to exempt the lobster fishery from measures aimed at saving plummeting cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine.
The vote to protect the lobster fishery came as the New England Fishery Management Council endorsed some of the toughest regulations the region’s groundfishermen have ever seen.
Meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, the fishery council voted to close some important coastal fishing grounds to protect spawning cod stocks for the fishing season that begins on May 1. Similar closures are already in effect under an emergency measure that will expire in six months.
The closed areas are generally on fishing grounds between Massachusetts Bay and southern Maine.
Recreational fishermen would be allowed to fish in the closed areas but would have to throw back any cod they catch. The council also decided that mid-water herring trawlers would not be subject to the measure.
The council’s recommendations now go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has the final say.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald