FishWatch

Harvesting Atlantic cod

Atlantic cod share the same habitat as several other groundfish species in the Northeast. These groundfish are often caught together in the same fishery, the Northeast Multispecies Fishery. Commercial fishermen harvest cod year-round, primarily with otter trawls and gill nets. A small percentage is caught with handlines and longlines.

Otter trawls can impact habitat and incidentally catch other fish and marine mammals. Fishermen follow a number of measures to reduce any impacts:

• Restrictions on the size of fishing gear in certain areas to reduce habitat impacts.
• Areas closed to fishing year-round or seasonally to protect habitat and spawning cod.
• Requirement that the mesh on trawl nets be large enough to allow small fish to escape. The minimum size allowed for the mesh of trawl nets is currently the largest in the history of the Northeast groundfish fishery. The larger-mesh nets catch fewer small fish, and this directly reduces bycatch.
• A cap on the amount of groundfish bycatch that fishing vessels can take.
• Trawl gear that has been shown to better target fish that can be landed must be used in certain areas.
• Voluntary measures to reduce the chance of interacting with marine mammals, including reducing the amount of turns made by the fishing vessel and tow times while fishing at night, and increasing communication between vessels about the presence of marine mammals in an area.

Gillnets catch low levels of other fish but can unintentionally catch marine mammals, especially harbor porpoise and large cetaceans (whales and dolphins) in the Northeast gillnet fishery. Fishermen follow a number of management measures to prevent bycatch in this fishery, including the Harbor Porpoise and Large Whale Take Reduction Plans. Measures include gear modifications, seasonal closures, and a requirement to have acoustic alarms on nets to prevent harbor porpoises from getting entangled in gillnets. At-sea fishery observers monitor bycatch in the groundfish fishery.

Also, most vessels that actively target groundfish are prohibited from discarding legal-sized groundfish, including cod.

Management

Who’s in charge? NOAA Fisheries and the New England Fishery Management Council

Current management: Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan

• Permitting requirements.
• Time/area closures to control the amount of fishing that may occur and fish that may be harvested and to protect spawning fish and habitat.
• A number of measures to reduce the fisheries’ impact on habitat and other species (see above).
• Minimum size limits to ensure that fish are able to spawn at least once before being caught.

Managers implemented new measures for the Northeast groundfish fishery in 2010 to end overfishing of and continue to rebuild overfished Northeast groundfish stocks (and maintain healthy ones). These measures include:

• A limit on the amount of all groundfish that can be caught, as well as measures to respond if the catch limits are exceeded.
• Optional catch share program – fishing vessels may fish together in groups (sectors), which are established annually and are allotted a portion of the total available groundfish catch, based on the combined fishing history of sector member vessels. Sectors are exempt from many gear and area restrictions but must stop fishing for groundfish once the sector catches their allotment of fish. This allows fishermen more control over where and how they fish and the ability to target healthier stocks rather than overfished stocks. Fishermen who choose not to join a sector must fish under the existing system of regulations, with limits on the number of days they can fish, amount they can catch, and when and where they can fish.

The Georges Bank cod stock is a transboundary resource so the United States coordinates management of a portion of this stock with Canada. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada manages the Canadian fishery on Georges Bank under an individual quota system. An informal understanding between Canada and the United States was implemented in 2004 to share the harvest of cod in 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 cod on eastern Georges Bank.

Annual Harvest

As managers have implemented strict measures to reduce fishing pressure on Atlantic cod to help the population rebuild, U.S. landings have generally declined since the 1990s. However, as the stocks rebuild, limits on the amount of cod that can be caught can be raised. The 2010 landings of Atlantic cod totaled almost 17.7 million pounds, down about 10 percent from 2009.

Economy

While 2010 landings of Atlantic cod were down from 2009, the value of this catch was up – 2010 landings of Atlantic cod were valued at $28.1 million, an increase of $2.9 million (over 11 percent) compared with 2009. Atlantic cod accounted for almost 25 percent of the total value of trawl fish caught in the North Atlantic (butterfish, cusk, flounders, haddock, red and white hake, ocean perch, pollock, and whiting).

RECREATIONAL

Recreational fishing also occurs year-round; peak activity occurs during the late summer in the lower Gulf of Maine and during late autumn to early spring from Massachusetts southward. Regulations include minimum fish sizes and possession limits for private recreational anglers and charter and party vessels (vessels that take paying passengers). Cod cannot be kept if caught in the Gulf of Maine from November 1 through April 15. Recreational vessels can fish for cod in areas otherwise closed to commercial vessels.