Groundfish ctte asks Council to reinstate cod closures; ban party boat fishing in Gulf of Maine
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh - September 18, 2014
New England's Groundfish Oversight Committee has proposed a hybrid plan of rolling cod fishing closures and a ban on recreational and charter fishing, among other recommendations as part of a revised management plan for the New England Fishery Council to consider. The proposal is in response to the updated Gulf of Maine cod stock assessment that found inshore cod populations are sharply lower than expectations.
The proposal was adopted yesterday during a Committee meeting in Portland, where several recommendations were chosen from the Groundfish Plan Development Team's (PDT) memo on Framework Adjustment 53.
Of the six options suggested in the PDT report, the Committee recommended that the Council consider options 4 and 6.
Option 4 proposes a "hybrid" plan that "adds additional closures in March and a return to the inshore Gulf of Maine closures...
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