New England Fishery Council unable to agree, punts cod crisis to NMFS for emergency action
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Boston Globe] by David Abel Oct 2, 2014
HYANNIS — In an effort to halt the precipitous decline of the cod population, the council that oversees the region’s fishing industry recommended emergency action Wednesday to bolster the species in the Gulf of Maine.
They left the details about what to do to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will decide how to respond by next month. But the recommendation could devastate fishermen across the region and put scores of them out of business. The question of quotas is so contentious that the council hired a police detail in case tensions boiled over.
“The point is it’s an emergency action, and we need to act quickly, given the grave condition of the cod stock, ” said Maggie Mooney-Seus, a spokeswoman for NOAA, which monitors the fishing industry in federal waters.
The New England Fishery Management Council left it up to the agency whether to prohibit recreational fishing in the western part of the gulf, require federal observers on commercial boats in some areas of the gulf, and end a spate of exemptions to reduce the overall catch.
The agency may also cut the quota for cod....
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