New cod fishing regulations in New England will make life more complicated for the region’s groundfish fleet during a period already impacted by high fuel costs.

The New England Fishery Management Council recently approved a new multispecies fishery management plan that split the management areas for cod in the Northeast U.S. into four separate areas, an increase from the two areas it was previously. That rule, Amendment 25, set separate allowable catch limits for each quadrant, which combines to a total allowable limit of 608 metric tons across all areas. 

Those rules were meant to respond to new scientific evidence showing that the four regions are genetically distinct stocks, and were meant to “rebuild overfished stocks, achieve optimum yield, and ensure that management measures are based on the best scientific information available," according to NOAA.

For fishermen in the region, that goal will result in much trickier math as they work out how to maximize the profitability of their fishing trips during a year punctuated by high fuel costs, according to advocates for the New England fishing industry.

Northeast Seafood Coalition Executive Director Jacqueline Odell told SeafoodSource that, for the groundfish fishery, most fishermen are actively trying to avoid cod rather than seek it out.

“Nowadays, quotas are so low they have to be mindful of that and fish in areas where they’re not going to catch a lot,” she said. 

Now that the entire structure of that fishery has changed into four areas, fishermen will have to re-think their catch strategies again to both avoid catching too many cod and maximize the profitability of the trips they’re taking.

“Just from a fishing behavior standpoint, everyone’s had that line of Gulf of Maine cod and Georges Bank cod in their mind, and now that’s all different,” Odell said. “Now the stocks aren’t going to line up; you’re going to be catching George’s Bank haddock at the same time you’re catching Gulf of Maine cod in the channel.”

New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association policy director Bonnie Brady told SeafoodSource that the math is working out to put them in a tricky situation when they plan on fishing trips. 

“I was speaking to a fisherman from Maine last week, and he said ‘yeah I’ve got quota, but if I have to steam 14 hours to get it, what’s the point with fuel prices?’” she said. “He effectively is being regionally locked out of catch.”

Brady said she’s been involved with the fishery for years, which has been through change after change from a regulatory perspective. 

“Groundfish has been through so many hills and valleys; at this point, it’s amazing we have anyone left standing,” she said. “I was there when catch shares were introduced under the Obama administration, and I was working for the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, and we fought like hell because the majority of Southern New England fishermen were completely left out of it. We had a better chance of catching fish under the common pool which they referred to then as the ‘cesspool.’”

Brady said between years of quota cuts and management changes, Long Island has barely any commercial fishing presence for groundfish left at all.

“There’s maybe one guy that I know of on Long Island that still catches, I believe, under a sector,” Brady said.

Odell said fishermen are going to need to be extremely strategic in what fish they’re going to catch, where they’re trying to catch it, and when they’re attempting to do so due to the shifts.

Both Brady and Odell also shared concerns regarding the level of science that regulators will have available when they perform an assessment next year. Odell said she believes there hasn’t been enough work put into ensuring the science they use following the fishery changes is adequate.

“Genetically, we all know that they’re different stocks; that’s the best science of the day. But how the fishery operates under that, how we manage under that, and how we’re collecting scientific data in that new regime, I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job at that,” she said.

Odell said portside sampling presently hasn’t been sampling from trips that fish in multiple broad stock areas, which will result in data voids.

“We have these huge voids, like Georges Bank cod. They have barely any length and aging data,” Odell said. 

Odell said one bright spot for the fishery has been relatively high prices for most species during the trips, which has helped amid the high fuel prices. But she added that the fishery is also under up to 100 percent monitoring, and currently most of those monitoring costs are covered by NOAA. Funding for that program will run out in a year and a half if U.S. Congress doesn’t appropriate more.

“There’s been talks of cutting that program, and if that happens, I’m not sure. That could be something that halts the entire groundfish program,” Odell said. “That’s going to be a chunk these guys can’t afford.”

As fishermen begin to grapple with a new system, Brady said there’s frustration from members of the fishery who only want to go and continue to fish sustainably while they face shrinking quotas, escalating costs, and increasing spatial squeezes from other uses like wind farms.

“These guys just want to go and do their best and catch the fish with the regulations that exist so that their catch can remain sustainable for their children and their children’s children. It seems the more advanced we become, the less profitable and use friendly we become,” she said. “I don’t want to see anyone where they’re at their breaking point, so I hope that we can have some better clarity in the near future.”

She added that any time new regulations come into place, fishermen are the ones who pay the price if things aren’t done well.

“Fishermen are always held accountable. If the government gets it wrong, they don’t pay a price,” Brady said.