2012 Cuts Of 55/77% For Cod Stocks Not Enough; #s At 3-4% Of Healthy Population

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HYANNIS — Back in July 2012, John Bullard was the newly minted Northeast regional director for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Soon after he took the reins, Bullard anguished over quota cuts of 77 percent for Gulf of Maine cod and 55 percent for Georges Bank cod, deemed necessary to rebuild those failing stocks.

"As difficult as that action was 18 months ago, it wasn't enough, and here we are back at the table with stocks headed towards zero," Bullard told the New England Fishery Management Council meeting at the Cape Codder Resort and Spa in Hyannis Tuesday. "We could make the argument that it was too little, too late."

The council will debate a cod emergency action today that could involve more closures, a drastically reduced quota and other measures. The council starts at 8:30 a.m. Bullard placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of his agency, but said that the council and fishermen all had a hand in the collapse of cod stocks. "This is what we have presided over," he said resignedly.

In August, the NMFS population estimate of the Gulf of Maine cod stock showed the 2012 measures, as drastic as they were, had failed to stem the slide of the region's iconic fish. The amount of spawning Gulf of Maine cod is now considered to be at an all-time low, only 3 and 4 percent of the size scientists said constituted a healthy, sustainable population producing the maximum yield for fishermen.

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http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20141001/NEWS/409300357

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