Norway Has Plentiful Cod, While NE Goes to the Dogs
As management cuts New England cod quotas to levels that are driving Gulf of Maine fishermen out of the business, Norway reports being awash in cod. So much so that large landings are driving down cod prices there.
Managers focused, complex mathematical models seem oblivious to the observations of fishermen like Maine’s Mike Breton who for years has said, “The cod’s problems are the dogfish, not the fishermen. Dogfish, a small shark up to 4 feet long, feed on cod from the day they are born, dogfish are born not hatched. The juvenile dogs eat the juvenile cod from birth and there are millions of dogfish out there. The NMFS has been cutting catches of cod for many years. It isn’t the problem, it has never worked. There is proof that the dogs are the culprit, but NMFS will not admit they are wrong. They are sure the problem is the fishermen although everything they have done to cut back on fishing has failed.
Letters to our Senators go unanswered, scientific evidence is ignored, the cod are doomed unless congress acts. Yes, it will take an act of congress to force NMFS to let the fleet catch as many dogfish as they can, as fast as they can to allow the cod to start rebuilding.”
Dogfish have been protected by NMFS for many years. Fishermen on the water see the abundance of dogfish and their preying on other species. The NMFS single species recovery approach has long been recognized by the fishermen to be a failure. Fishermen say they have been unable to get movement from NMFS that will effectively address the dogfish imbalance on the groundfish resource.