NOAA Approves Industry Compromise on Gulf of Maine Cod Restrictions
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Saving Seafood] - March 4, 2015 -
NOAA has approved a sector exemption request from the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund (GFCPF), which will utilize the sector system to preserve 30 metric tons of cod in exchange for relaxing some of the Gulf of Maine cod Interim Management Measures enacted in November 2014.
The compromise meets the agency's cod conservation goals while providing regional fishermen and ancillary businesses with the opportunity to catch and sell abundant and under-harvested groundfish species.
Even though stocks of pollock, haddock, and redfish are plentiful, fishermen have caught less than 30 percent of their allotted quota on all of these species: 23 percent for pollock, 21 percent for Georges Bank haddock, and 35 percent for redfish.
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