November 10, 2014 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is shutting down cod fishing, from Provincetown up to the Canadian border. No fishermen – commercial or recreational – may trawl or use certain large nets that might catch cod.
Federal regulators are imposing the emergency fishing restrictions in response to plummeting numbers of cod in the Gulf of Maine. The measures will go into effect on Thursday and will prevent commercial fishermen from targeting cod.
“To take emergency action to reduce the amount of over-fishing occurring for the remainder of this fishing year.”
Michael Ruccio is a fishery policy analyst with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.