GLOUCESTER, Mass. — April 27, 2012– On May 1 the NOAA Fisheries will implement a 22% reduction in the allowable catch of Gulf of Maine cod. NOAA announced that fishermen will be allowed to catch up to 6,700 metric tons of Gulf of Maine cod in 2012. This 22% cut in allocation of GOM cod will have significant economic impact to the City of Gloucester, a port of 197 active commercial fishing vessels grossing $60 million in landings during the last fishing year.
The City of Gloucester Fisheries Commission thanks our industry and political representatives that have worked so hard to obtain this compromise interim ruling. We recognize our Mayor Carolyn Kirk, Senators Kerry and Brown, Congressmen Tierney, Frank and Keating in particular. We also thank State Senator Bruce Tarr and State Rep. Ann Margaret Ferrante. We are grateful to the federal government for working collaboratively with stakeholders in an unprecedented and encouraging manner and for approving this interim action.
The importance of GOM cod to the fishermen and economy of Gloucester cannot be overemphasized. We ask the governors of all the region’s states to cooperate with the fishing industry and our City to craft an emergency disaster assistance package for the impacted fishermen – especially since the fishing industry has complied with all regulations and has not exceeded the total allowable catch for Gulf of Maine cod since 1996. Fishermen are not responsible for what has taken place. The Commission joins with the industry in a request for disaster relief and supports the attached March 26, 2012 Northeast Seafood Coalition letter to the governors making this request.
The stark difference between the two assessments in 2008 and 2011 threatens all fishing related businesses in our City, and it is essential to reassess such wildly different findings and conflicting results, for a fishing community like Gloucester is to exist. The current 22% cut in GOM cod taking effect this May is but a harbinger of far deeper cuts in allowable catches that are being discussed for cod and other stocks as well to take effect in May 2013. The Commission is gravely concerned that these cuts will be too severe for our port infrastructure to survive.
Regardless of current law, our fishermen should not be shut out of the fishery if the decrease in the measured biomass was in error or occurred primarily for natural reasons that are not accounted for in the models.
Commission chairman David Bergeron asked, “Why should our fishermen be put out of business because Mother Nature didn’t read the Magnuson Act?”
Before catch limits are established for 2013, the City of Gloucester calls on federal and state agencies to work with fishermen and scientists to develop a reasonable management response that addresses legitimate biological concerns for the resource, is based on our full scientific understanding of the dynamics of fisheries and oceans ecosystems, and incorporates greater flexibility in the definition of “overfishing” in the Magnuson Act to allow fishing communities to remain economically viable through this assessment crisis.
Read the Northeast Seafood Coalition's letter to the Governors