Saving Seafood recently reported on several questions concerning the 2011 Gulf of Maine cod assessment, and the actions taken by the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) to respond to questions about the assessment. Saving Seafood and several other media outlets described the SSC actions as "extraordinary". To clarify, the SSC’s actions reflected the Council’s instructions to the SSC. The Council’s approach to responding to the new stock information deviated from the normal management process, and produced a unique result that many observers have described as “extraordinary”.
Under normal management procedures established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Council’s SSC is required to provide “ongoing scientific advice for fishery management decisions, including recommendations for acceptable biological catch (ABC).” The Council then must set catch limits based on this advice, with the levels “not exceed[ing] the fishing level recommendations of its scientific and statistical committee.” The recommendations made by the SSC are usually based on the results of the stock assessment and the goals of the fishery management plan it is operating under.
For the 2011 assessment, the Council did not request the SSC suggest ABC limits or that it either accept or reject the assessment. Rather, the Council, in their Terms of Reference memo to the SSC, decided, “to deviate from its normal process” in setting catch limits. This will be done at a later date and once further work by the SSC has been completed.
Instead of proposing limits for the Council to act on, the SSC was asked to examine the results of the stock assessment, specifically to “identify information that may influence the interpretation of the assessment results.” The Council specifically lists nine areas of scientific concern with the survey, many of them brought up by outside experts and previously highlighted in Saving Seafood reports.
Key figures in fisheries management, have publicly recognized the unique problems posed by the 2011 assessment and the potential need for unusual management decisions. Rip Cunningham, chairman of the NEFMC, told the New Bedford Standard-Times “unusual circumstances require an unusual response.” Similarly, Eric Schwaab, the former head of NOAA Fisheries (the National Marine Fisheries service), told the Associated Press that the impact of the assessment would be so severe that “extraordinary options ought to be on the table.” The recent actions taken by the NEFMC and the SSC reflect areas of uncertainty associated with the assessment, and the potentially dire consequences of any management action based on it.