The New England Fishery Management Council will resubmit Amendment 25 to its Northeast groundfish plan, after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik disapproved the regional council’s original December 2024 proposal.
The National Marine Fisheries said May 28 “that Amendment 25 and its supporting analyses do not adequately demonstrate how the proposed action is consistent with National Standard 1 or other required provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.”
After a lengthy deliberation at the council’s June meeting, its members voted to resubmit Amendment 25, “which would replace the current Atlantic cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank with the newly identified cod stocks in Eastern Gulf of Maine, Western Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England,” council officials announced July 3.
The plan was protested by New England fishermen after the council’s initial approval last December. Despite Lutnik’s disapproval, NMFS still assessed that a new four-stock Atlantic cod structure “and the resulting management track stock assessments have been determined to be the best scientific information available.”
The agency critique said Amendment 25 “lacked critical management elements including reference points, accountability measures, and catch limits,” according to the council statement, “but noted that the revised stock structure, with four cod stock units, is the best scientific information available.”
The council will pause work on other 2025 groundfish priorities to complete the Amendment 25 revisions in its September meeting and resubmit it to NMFS later this fall.
Among other actions in June, the council “also initiated groundfish Framework Adjustment 72 with anticipated final action scheduled for December 2025,” according to the council. “This action will set specifications for groundfish stocks for FY2026-2028, U.S./Canada Total Allowable Catch for FY2026, and other measures:”
• Specifications for Georges Band cod and haddock; Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder, Southern New
England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder.
• Georges Bank winter flounder, Gulf of Maine winter flounder, Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic winter flounder, white hake, Acadian redfish, ocean pout, and Atlantic wolffish.
• Establish the NMFS Northeast regional administrator authority to adjust recreational measures for haddock and cod on a permanent basis.
