Category: Fishermen Profiles

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Time to protect cod habitat

AS I SEE IT

By Roger Fleming

Will we be the last generation to enjoy cod in New England?
Since Colonial times, the Sacred Cod hanging in the Massachusetts Statehouse has been a “historic and continuing symbol of the commonwealth.” This regional mascot reminds us that New England was built on a foundation of fish.
Without drastic intervention to save the cod (and the habitat they need to thrive) our grandchildren might know the cod only as the wooden sculpture — and a testament to our greed and shortsightedness.
This summer, NOAA Fisheries released some shocking new data.
It appears that cod in the Gulf of Maine have declined to just 3 percent of what is needed for a healthy population (down from an already dismal 15 percent in 2011).
Worse yet, scientists found fewer juveniles, which means reproduction rates are crashing. Atlantic cod is headed toward “commercial extinction” in New England waters, as happened in Canada in the 1990s.
The decline of cod is the result of bad decisions by federal fisheries managers (under pressure from powerful fishing interests) that encouraged overfishing for decades and failed to protect the habitat cod need to thrive.
In 2012, the New England Fisheries Management Council recommended a significant quota cut for cod in a last-ditch effort to save the species.
This was met with outrage by the old-school groundfish industry. NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency who makes the final management decisions, tried to soften the blow — taking actions which were recently found illegal by a federal court.
The new science shows that even the 2012 catch reductions were too small to protect the remaining cod stock. More needs to be done.
Despite the scientific evidence, expect the dominant players in the fishery to launch a new-old campaign of outrage against the measures needed to save, and rebuild cod stocks. Their campaign will include familiar messages.
First, they will claim NOAA’s Science Center got the science wrong and that there are far more cod in the ocean than estimated — despite the fact fishermen have been unable to catch even the declining cod quotas in recent years.
They will try to blame other causes for the population decline, like ravenous hoards of seals and dogfish, and climate change, while not acknowledging the severe overfishing that took place for decades.
The industry will also call for more “flexibility” in the regulations that are needed to prevent overfishing and protect the habitat cod need to recover.
Finally, expect a request for more government money to bail them out. This year, U.S. taxpayers gave the New England groundfish industry $33 million.

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