Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus)

• Haddock populations are low, and stocks are rebuilding and showing signs of recovery. Overfishing is no longer occurring.
• The most effective measures used to manage haddock fisheries have been closed areas, days-at-sea restrictions, and increased minimum trawl mesh size.
• Haddock is a great source of low-fat protein and is high in magnesium and selenium. For more on nutrition, see Nutrition Facts. (USDA)
• About 30% of the haddock for sale in the U.S. comes from Canadian fisheries.

Sustainability Status

Biomass: Gulf of Maine biomass is 26% of the biomass needed to support maximum sustainable yield (B_MSY). Georges Bank biomass is at 47% B_MSY, as of 2004. The 2003 year class on Georges Bank was the largest on record; as a result the stock may be nearing rebuilt status. It will be reassessed in 2008.
Overfishing: No
Overfished: Yes
Fishing and habitat: Haddock are primarily harvested with otter trawls. The effects of otter trawls vary depending on how the gear is configured, the intensity of the trawling activity, and the type of habitat. Potential impacts include resuspending sediment in the water column, creating furrows, and removing or damaging non-target species and biota. Complex hard bottom habitats, composed of pebble, gravel, and smooth, hard sand between rocky patches, are very vulnerable to bottom tending fishing gear. Impacts to sand habitat are considered moderate.
Bycatch: Minimum trawl mesh sizes are currently the largest in the history of the Northeast groundfish fishery. The larger mesh nets catch fewer small fish, and this directly reduces bycatch.
Aquaculture: There is currently no aquaculture production of haddock in the U.S., but research is being conducted on aquaculture of haddock and cod.

Science and Management

The two major stocks of haddock in U.S. waters are located on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine; both support year-round commercial fisheries. These stocks are managed as part of the Northeast Multispecies fishery, a complex of 15 groundfish species, by the New England Fishery Management Council under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP). Originally implemented in 1985, this FMP currently manages the multispecies fishery through measures including effort limitations, closed areas, trip limits, gear restrictions, minimum size restrictions, a total allowable catch, and a bycatch cap.

Since 1994, direct fishing effort controls have been in place under Amendments 5 and 7, including a moratorium on permits and days-at-sea restrictions. Amendment 9 established initial biomass rebuilding targets and a harvest control rule that specified target fishing mortality rates. In May 2004, Amendment 13 was implemented to end overfishing on all groundfish stocks and rebuild all groundfish stocks that are overfished, including haddock. The overall goal of this amendment is to reduce fishing mortality to rebuild depleted groundfish stocks to target biomasses. This Amendment established an adaptive rebuilding strategy for stocks of Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine haddock and set a target rebuilding date of 2014.

The Georges Bank haddock stock is also a transboundary resource, meaning the stock migrates across international boundaries. Therefore, management of a portion of the stock is coordinated with Canada. The Canadian fishery on Georges Bank is managed under an individual quota system. An informal quota sharing understanding between Canada and the U.S. was implemented in 2004 to share the harvest of the transboundary portion of the stock. This understanding includes total allowable catch quotas for each country as well as in-season monitoring of the U.S. catch of haddock on eastern Georges Bank.

Recreational landings of Georges Bank haddock are not significant, but recreational catches of Gulf of Maine haddock have increased in recent years and now make up 12 to 16 percent of total catches.

Life History and Habitat

Life history, including information on the habitat, growth, feeding, and reproduction of a species, is important because it affects how a fishery is managed. High reproductive potential in haddock means they may respond to management actions more rapidly than species that reproduce slowly and in small numbers.

• Geographic range: In both sides of the North Atlantic: in the western North Atlantic, they range from the Strait of Belle Isle, Newfoundland to Cape May, New Jersey. The highest concentrations of haddock off the U.S. coast are on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine.
• Habitat: Haddock live in bottom habitats with a substrate of pebble gravel, broken ground, and sand areas between rocky patches. Haddock are most common from depths of 131 to 492 feet and temperatures less than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Juveniles are found in shallower water on bank and shoal areas, and larger adults are associated with deeper water.
• Life span: The oldest recorded haddock in U.S. waters is a 17-year-old fish captured in 1980, but most live to age 3 to 7.
• Food: Haddock are bottom feeders with a diverse diet that includes gastropod and bivalve mollusks, polychaete worms, amphipods, crabs, shrimps, sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, brittle stars, and occasional fish eggs. Adults will sometimes consume small fishes, especially herring. Larvae and small juveniles swimming in the water column eat small crustaceans, primarily copepods and euphausiids, as well as polychaetes and small fishes.
• Growth rate: In the Gulf of Maine, juvenile haddock (less that 4 years) grow approximately 6 inches per year, slowing to 1 to 2 inches per year as adults. In general, American haddock grow faster than European haddock. The 2003 year class on Georges Bank is so large that haddock are not growing at a normal rate and thus are slow to recruit to the fishery.
• Maximum size: Range in length from 1 foot to a maximum of about 3.3 feet. The largest haddock captured in U.S. waters weighed 30 pounds.
• Reaches reproductive maturity: Between the ages of 1 and 4
• Reproduction: Haddock have high reproductive potential - an average-sized female (22 inches) produces approximately 850,000 eggs, and larger females are capable of producing up to 3 million eggs annually. They are broadcast spawners, meaning that females release eggs near the ocean bottom in batches where they are fertilized by a courting male. Once fertilized, eggs become buoyant and rise to the surface water layer where they drift with ocean currents. Juvenile haddock remain near the surface for several months after hatching before settling to the bottom.
• Spawning season: Between January and June, peaking during February to early April on Georges Bank, the primary spawning area
• Spawning grounds: Spawning concentrations occur on eastern Georges Bank, to the east of Nantucket Shoals and along the Maine coast over rock, gravel, sand, or mud bottoms.
• Migrations: Adult haddock do not undertake long migrations but move seasonally in the western Gulf of Maine, the Great South Channel, and on the northeast peak of Georges Bank. Adults move into shallower waters in spring to spawn.
• Predators: Predators of juveniles include elasmobranchs (spiny dogfish and skates) and many groundfish species (cod, pollock, cusk, white hake, red hake, silver hake, goosefish, halibut, and sea raven). Gray seals also prey on haddock.
• Commercial or recreational interest: Both
• Distinguishing characteristics: Haddock are closely related to the cod but distinguished by the black "thumbprint" found on each side of its body.

Role in the Ecosystem

Additional Information

Market name: Haddock
Vernacular name: Scrod haddock

Biomass

Biomass refers to the amount of haddock in the ocean. Scientists cannot collect and weigh every single fish to determine biomass, so they use models to estimate it instead. These biomass estimates can help determine if a stock is being fished too heavily or if it may be able to tolerate more fishing pressure. Managers can then make appropriate changes in the regulations of the fishery.

Although Gulf of Maine haddock abundance has increased since the mid-1990s, stock biomass remains low in comparison to the biomass needed to support maximum sustainable yield. Overall, the Gulf of Maine haddock stock remains in an overfished condition although overfishing is not currently occurring.

As a result of persistent overfishing in the 1980s, Georges Bank spawning biomass declined from 67,400 metric tons (148.6 million pounds) in 1980 to only 14,600 metric tons (32 million pounds) in 1993. Since 1994, fishery management measures have been implemented to decrease fishing mortality, and spawning biomass has increased substantially as a result. However, even though stock size has increased, the Georges Bank haddock stock is still in an overfished condition since spawning biomass in 2004 was only 116,800 metric tons (257.5 million pounds), less than half of the rebuilding target. Overfishing is not currently occurring on the Georges Bank haddock stock.

Note: Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine biomass are presented using the results from autumn surveys.

Landings

Landings refer to the amount of catch that is brought to land. Total commercial haddock landings (U.S. and Canada) from the Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine stocks increased to 22,032 metric tons (48.6 million pounds) in 2005. The 2005 haddock catch was the highest total catch since 1983 (19,606 metric tons/43.2 million pounds) and almost 9 times greater than the record low of 2,533 metric tons (5.6 million pounds) in 1995. Landings have generally increased each year since 1995 as the stock has been rebuilding under restrictive management measures. Despite recent increases in haddock yields, current landings are less than 1/3 of the long-term potential yield of the combined Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank haddock stocks.

Note: The landings presented are domestic commercial landings.

Biomass and Landings

Are landings and biomass related? Landings are dependent on biomass, management measures in the fishery, and fishing effort.

Note: It appears that landings exceed biomass at times, but this is not the case as biomass and landings are presented on two different scales. Biomass is presented in kilograms per tow, and landings are presented in metric tons.

Data sources:
Biomass and landings from NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center Status of Fishery Resources off the Northeastern U.S. - Haddock

Important Dates

1960s – Georges Bank haddock stock collapses due to a succession of poor recruiting year classes and heavy removals by distant water fleets
Late 1960s-early 1970s – Georges Bank spawning stock remains at very low levels and recruiting year classes remain very poor
1975 – Extremely large year class in Georges Bank; population increases substantially
1982 – Interim Groundfish Fishery Management Plan implemented
1984 – The "Hague Line" is implemented, establishing the joint management of eastern Georges Bank haddock between the U.S. and Canada
1985 – Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan adopted
1991 – Georges Bank haddock, a mainstay of the New England groundfishery, are depleted to the lowest total levels ever recorded
1993 – Mature Georges Bank haddock at their lowest
1990s – Conservation measures for Georges Bank haddock enacted by U.S. and Canada; stock begins to rebound
1994 – Amendment 5 adopted, creating limited entry permits and limiting the number of days fishermen could fish
1995 – Lowest recorded catch of Georges Bank haddock
2003 – Spawning haddock on Georges Bank produce the largest incoming group of young fish in 40 years, and perhaps the largest on record for the stock
2004 – Quota sharing agreement between Canada and the U.S. implemented for eastern Georges Bank haddock; includes total allowable catch (TAC) allocations and in-season monitoring of the haddock catch
2004 – Amendment 13 implements requirements for formal rebuilding programs; also reduces number of days-at-sea allocated to each permit and adopts measures to protect essential fish habitat
2004 – Georges Bank total commercial catch of 17,600 metric tons (38.8 million pounds) is over 7 times larger than lowest catch in 1995

Notes and Links

General Information:
NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center Status of Fishery Resources off the Northeastern U.S. - Haddock

NOAA Technical Memorandum, Essential Fish Habitat Source Document: Haddock, Melanogrammus aeglefinus, Life History and Habitat Characteristics, Second Edition

Fishery Management:
New England Fishery Management Council Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan and information

Stock Assessments:
NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center Stock Assessment of Georges Bank Haddock, 1931-2004

NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center Assessment of 19 Northeast groundfish stocks through 2004