April 28, 2015 — One might think that the lifting of the emergency cod regulations imposed by NOAA last November would bring sighs of relief across the Gloucester waterfront and elsewhere as the new commercial fishing year dawns Friday.
But there is little relief and there are no cheers being heard among groundfishermen here and elsewhere across the North Shore and New England.
For in lifting a number of the area closures that kept many fishing boats tied to the docks late last year, NOAA and the New England Fishery Management Council have replaced those rules with new guidelines that will cut the landing limits for Gulf of Maine cod by another 75 percent for the season that begins May 1.
That looms as yet another harsh blow to an industry that, lest we forget, has been locked in a federally recognized “economic disaster” since the fall of 2012 — and that was before the initial 78 percent cod cuts that have covered the last two years were even installed.
The new rules cut the total allowable quota for Gulf of Maine cod to 386 metric tons, with about 200 metric tons likely to be portioned out to commercial fishing enterprises.
The new mandates, sadly, come as no surprise. The council had signaled it was eyeing that level of reduction for 2015 at its meeting last November — just after John Bullard, NOAA’s Gloucester-based Northeast administrator, had handed down the inshore cod closures and other emergency actions.