On the eve of today's landmark debate about the status and future of inshore cod — the dominant fish for both the commercial and recreational industries — controversy Tuesday continued to engulf the NOAA Science Center's dire assessment of the resource.
"The stock assessment does not appear to be complete," New Bedford Mayor Jonathan F. Mitchell wrote to C.M. "Rip" Cunningham, chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council, which is in the midst of its mid-winter meeting in Portsmouth, N.H.
The council agenda calls for discussion beginning at 1 p.m. today on the status of Gulf of Maine cod and a "possible request to the National Marine Fisheries Service for emergency action to address overfishing" of the iconic seafood.
Barring an emergency declaration, the science assessment would require a virtual shutdown of the fishery, which by all accounts would induce an economic catastrophe for the ports of New England, including Gloucester. But the Obama administration has signaled its willingness to use what limited flexibility exists in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to minimize the hardships in the short run.
Read the complete story in The Gloucester Times