January 2, 2014 — Good luck finding local cod in Cape Cod, Mass.
The fish once sustained New England's fishing industry, but in recent years, regulators have imposed severe catch limits on cod, and the fish remain scarce.
To deal with the shortage, New England fishermen are turning to other types of fish — specifically, dogfish. But dogfish is considered a "trash fish" and has almost no market in the U.S.
"I've never seen cod fishing this bad," says Greg Walinsky, who has been fishing on Cape Cod for more than 30 years. "It looks to me like it's over. And I can't catch any codfish."
It's so bad, many fishermen say, that for the first time, they cannot catch enough cod to even reach shrinking government quotas.
At Finely JP's, a seafood restaurant on the Cape, owner John Pontius says he has always served local cod, but the shortage caused prices to skyrocket. So for a while, he took it off the menu.
Now Pontius serves cod imported from Iceland. He is not alone.
"Everybody up and down the road has got the same cod from Iceland on their menu right now. If it's on the menu, it's more than likely Icelandic," he says.