December 3, 2014 — The issue: The crisis in the fishing industry has been building for the past four or five years over new management arrangements that were supposed to protect fish while being fair to fishermen. What kind of success have the fisheries regulators had in restoring groundfish populations in the Northeast?
The actions: In terms of groundfish, cod is causing the worry. Unlike haddock or yellowtail flounder, cod populations have plummeted to historical record lows. This is despite the heaviest regulation in the nation, which has been a failure in this regard.
NOAA Fisheries has been steadily reducing the cod quotas, cutting them by 75 percent in the next fishing year, which starts in May. Some fishermen say that NOAA can't catch fish, that they can, and cod are out there. The survey data is, by all accounts, all over the place, and generally it is not good. Yet the New England Fishery Management Council last month decided that since there will be more surveys next year, it would reject an emergency survey to get better numbers.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times