April 2, 2012 – The National Marine Fisheries Service announced today at a morning teleconference that they would be cutting next year’s Gulf of Maine cod quota by 22 percent to 6,700 metric tons.
This reduction was much less than the 80 to 85 percent cut to end overfishing as required under sustainable fishing laws imposed by Congress.
NMFS Acting Deputy Administrator for regulatory programs Alan Risenhoover said they were responding to concerns from the fishing industry that cutting the quota to 1,300 metric tons would have shut down fishing in much of the New England region.
Such a drastic drop in quota was necessitated when NMFS scientists updated a 2008 Gulf of Maine cod stock assessment that found that the population was well on its way to being rebuilt by 2014.
The updated work showed that while the cod population had been growing slowly, the initial estimates were way too high and that the stock could not be rebuilt by a congressionally mandated 2014 deadline even if fishing stopped immediately.
“While the stock is not what we hoped, we – (NMFS), the (New England Fishery Management) council, the industry and NGO’s (non-governmental organizations), have responded to come together with this new interim rule,” Risenhoover said. He described the new quota as “transitional” and intended to make some progress towards ending overfishing while keeping fishermen on the water.
For another year, at least, it is possible they could face a similarly dramatic cut in May of 2013, unless new information changes the stock estimate considerably between now and then.
Read the full article at the Cape Cod Times.