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Written by Mike Plaia
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Originally published in Nor'east Saltwater Magazine he Atlantic Cod, Gadus morhua, is probably the most pursued fish in the history of the world. It is found throughout the North Atlantic Ocean and there are multiple subpopulations of the species. The codfish ranges from the northern coast of Norway, Greenland, the Atlantic Coast of Canada and the United States. Within the U.S. there are two separate subpopulations, one in the Gulf of Maine and the other in an area that stretches from George’s Bank to the coast off of the Carolinas. There is considerable intermixing between the Gulf of Maine and the George’s Bank/Southern New England populations, but not enough to warrant treating all of the fish as a single population.
Before both the United States and Canada declared their exclusive rights to fish on the continental shelf of North America in the mid 1970’s, virtually the entire world fished for cod off the Atlantic coast of North America. Most of the effort was centered on Canada’s Grand Banks and the U.S.’ George’s Bank. Both areas are wide, relatively shallow banks rising up out of the surrounding deeper waters. The bottom on both banks is primarily made up of small pebbles and rubble, which is the preferred habitat for codfish. Tagging studies show that virtually all of the codfish found in the southern New England area, which is the coast from MA, south of Cape Cod to the N.J. coast, migrate from George’s Bank.
Prior to the United States and Canada’s declaration of their respective exclusive economic zones, cod populations were very depressed, with few fish being caught off of the southern New England area. After George’s Bank and the Gulf of Maine were closed to foreign fishing fleets, the population of both areas started to rebound. A slow and steady growth in population took place until roughly the mid 1980’s, when the growing catches drew in more fishing boats. Most of the U.S. commercial fishing effort is pursued using bottom trawls, gillnets or hook and line (tub trawls).
The George’s Bank/ southern New England cod grows faster that it’s Gulf of Maine cousins. Usually reaching spawning age at 5 years old, in the Gulf of Maine spawning usually starts at age 6. Both stocks spawn during the winter, sometime in the December/January time frame. The spawning run in the Gulf of Maine usually occurs in January along the coast of MA and NH. Most biologists believe that spawning on George’s Bank takes place at about the same time.
The New England Fishery Management Council manages (some would say mismanages) the species throughout its range. Cod are not managed as a stand-alone species; rather they are managed as part of the northeast multispecies groundfish complex, which comprises about 19 different fish species. In addition to the cod the complex includes flounders (winter and yellowtail), hakes (red, white and silver), haddock and red fish as well as some less desirable species like skates.
The first attempts at managing the groundfish complex came in 1978, and were a total failure. A second attempt in 1982 concentrated on management of the cod, haddock and yellow tail founder stocks, as proxies for the overall health of the complex. The 1982 fishery management plan was also something less than a resounding success. Gradually over the years, the New England Council has tightened the regulations governing both the commercial and recreational fishermen that pursue the cod. Today, the Council is preparing Amendment 16 to the original fishery management plan, which is scheduled to go into effect in 2009. The council also recently adopted Framework 42, which also altered the rules for recreational anglers, but only for those fishing in the Gulf of Maine. Those rules imposed for the first time, a closed season on codfishing for recreational anglers from November 1st to March 31st of each year. The reasoning behind the closure is to protect the spawning aggregations of fish, which in the Gulf of Maine occur near the shore during December and January. While this may not have a direct effect on our local cod stocks, anything that improves the overall numbers along our coast certainly can’t hurt.
Since the initial Fishery Management Plan in 1978, the New England Council has adopted stricter and stricter regulations on both the commercial and recreational fishermen. Recently many commercial fishermen have begun to complain that they can no longer make a living fishing for cod, due to the restrictive regulations which have drastically cut back their days at sea allocation (see sidebar). All sign point to the adoption of even more restrictive regulation under Amendment 16 to the fishery management plan, and the council appears to be ready to do whatever is necessary to rebuild the fisheries. |
Looking out into the future there are at least two potential obstacles to achieving the rebuilding of the cod stock. One is the potential for political pressure on the council to relax the regulations so that commercial fishermen can “earn a living” from codfish. The second, and potentially bigger obstacle can be summed up in one word DOGFISH! Something has to be done about the explosion in the dogfish population. At a recent joint meeting of the recreational and groundfish advisors and the Council’s groundfish committee, there was very little agreement about anything, except that something has to be done about the dogfish. We all know that the codfish and the dogfish share the same space in the ocean. We also know that dogfish prey upon juvenile cod and that cod and dogfish both pursue the same prey. Why is it so difficult to figure out that at least one of the reasons for the lack of recruitment into the cod stock is the preponderance of the dogfish? Where is the touted “ecosystem” management when we need it? Some help on the dogfish front may be on the way. Recently the scientists that estimate the total fish populations suddenly noticed the huge increase in dogfish in their samples. If we are lucky this might translate into higher catch limits for commercial fishermen targeting dogfish that would be a win-win for both commercial and recreational fishermen. It would give the commercial fishermen something else to fish for besides the cod and also help the cod stock recover by reducing competition and predation by the dogfish.
The George’s Bank stock of cod hit its low point in 1995 and has been slowly rebuilding. The slide above, which was prepared by the staff of the New England Fishery Management Council, shows this slow rebuilding to until 2004. They anticipate that once the data is available for later years the slow rebuilding trend will continue, up until 2008 or 2009, when there should be sharp upswing. The 2003 year class of fish was exceptionally large, and once these fish are fully recruited into the spawning stock, in 2008 and 2009, there should be a big increase in the spawning stock biomass.
Certainly our observations on the fishing grounds bear out this rebuilding trend. In recent years there has been a decent spring run of codfish to the south and east of Block Island. Boats from Pt Judith and Montauk enjoyed some very good fishing on some days. As the stock rebuilds we should see the codfish return to the CIA and Cartwright grounds south of Montauk. Eventually the fish should return to the New York Bight and spread south along the rest of the coast. This past summer also boasted some good codfishing in the traditional summer fishery on Cox’s ledge. I had several charters where my crew of four managed to catch thirty to thirty-five keeper cod. Most of the fish were in the 5 to 10 pound class.
Another potential impact from the actions the council has taken with respect to the Gulf of Maine stock may come from the actions that they have taken to try and protect the 2003 year class, which should begin spawning next year. That class was one of the largest year classes in recent memory, and to the extent that they can be protected and allowed to breed, their offspring might fuel a rebound in the Gulf of Maine population, which could spill over into the George’s Bank/southern New England population.
Sidebar:
Days-At-Sea
One of the innovations that the New England Fishery Management Council came up with in developing its plan for the multispecies groundfish complex has been the days-at-sea concept. One of the problems with traditional fishing restrictions, like trip limits, is that they often result in dead fish being thrown away (called regulatory discards). No one likes regulatory discards; they represent lost income to the commercial fisherman and have no benefit to the fish populations.
The council decided that rather than limit the catch directly; they would limit the catch indirectly, by limiting the amount of fishing effort that could be brought to bear on the stocks. Each boat in the fishery was given, based on its catch history, an amount of days that the boat could fish. At the time it was quite a novel concept, and a rather ingenious way to minimize the problem of regulatory discards.
The system has since evolved into a more complicated format involving “A” days-at-sea and “B” days-at-sea. The “A” days are much more desirable than the “B” days, since they allow the boat to fish more productive areas for the more valuable species. All of the boats involved in the fishery are required to have a vessel monitoring system installed on the boat, to prevent cheating on the boat’s days-at-sea allotment.
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