New England’s cod populations are at their lowest levels in history, thanks to decades of chronic overfishing and habitat destruction. Fisheries scientists agree that protecting vital fish habitat is key to restoring these once-plentiful fish species. How does the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) respond? Yesterday NOAA proposed to allow new bottom trawling and other forms of commercial fishing in areas of New England’s ocean that have been protected for almost twenty years. NOAA’s assessment, which did not include a full analysis of the impacts and benefits of removing this protection as required by federal law, actually concludes that, for three of the four areas, opening them to trawling and other forms of fishing is “likely to yield only small increases in net benefit.”  NOAA’s assessment also finds that, in one of the areas, the opening will result in a reduction in net benefits to offshore lobstering, which will not be allowed at times when groundfishing is permitted.

The trade-offs exchanged for this “small increase in net benefit” are many, and they include the value of almost two decades of ecological restoration. Protecting habitat promotes the recovery of Georges Bank haddock and has rejuvenated the valuable scallop stocks. If NOAA’s own environmental assessment concludes that these protected areas harbor larger, more productive fish, why is NOAA allowing access to kill fish that could help overfished stocks to rebound or healthy stocks to remain healthy?

Also at risk is any role that these areas might play in the long-term protection of fish habitat. For more than eight years, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has been “developing” a grand plan, known as the Omnibus Habitat Amendment, designed to meet federal law requirements to protect fish habitat against the damaging impacts of fishing gear. A final decision on the Amendment is expected in ten months. Bizarrely, NOAA is proposing to open areas now that are under consideration for future protection. What will be the remaining value of this habitat after trawls have been allowed to ply them for months? Let’s face it, NOAA, any trawling will diminish this area’s habitat value and trawling for two months will eliminate it. The fact is that if NOAA’s proposal is completed it will effectively preempt the NEFMC’s assessment of these areas and remove them from inclusion in any future habitat protection plan without the fully required analysis.

If the benefit that these areas play in rebuilding and maintaining fish stocks and the fact that they are under consideration in a federally-mandated habitat protection plan was not enough to convince NOAA that opening these areas was a bad idea, the agency should have at least been convinced by the role that they play in buffering against climate change impacts. This is especially so given that NOAA’s strategy for helping fish adapt to climate change is to “conserve habitat to support healthy fish,” and one its means for achieving that is “to reduce negative impacts of capture practices and gear on important habitats for fish.” Sadly, this action could not be more diametrically opposed to these strategies.

NOAA’s proposal appropriately retains protection from trawling for places in the Gulf of Maine like Cashes Ledge, an underwater mountain range 80 miles off the coasts of Massachusetts that harbors the largest and deepest kelp forest on the eastern seaboard and shelters some of the most diverse habitat and wildlife in the region. The agency should extend its rational thinking beyond the Gulf of Maine and retain all existing protected areas until a full consideration of the functions, values and merits of new and existing protected areas has been completed as part of the Omnibus Habitat Amendment process.

The public has until July 26 to comment on NOAA’s proposal to open nearly 3,000 square miles of protected habitat to commercial trawling. Please take action here.

May 21 - Tom Toles Tackles Fisheries and Climate Change - The great Tom Toles takes on the effects of climate change on fish with this cartoon in the Washington Post.

May 24 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, May 24 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, Eric Schwaab is leaving NOAA; fisheries regulators ask fishermen not to take out frustration on at-sea observers; the ASMFC postpones a decision on the elver fishery; alewife counts in New England rivers are way up this year; a parasite may be affecting yellowtail flounder populations; Michael Conathan writes on fisheries and climate change; a local scientist testifies in a Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization hearing.

April 24 - Squelching the People’s Voice - So despite a confusing public process and a paltry 15-day comment period, enough people to fill Fenway Park twice over took time out to participate in the public process. And by a ratio of 12 thousand to one they told NOAA to keep the closed areas closed. But you wouldn’t know this from visiting the official public record for the proposal on the internet.

April 26 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, April 26 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, NOAA repeats its refusal of interim measures after a request from Governor Patrick; NEFMC meets and discusses climate change; a bill to allow Maine fishermen to sell lobsterbycatch fails; NMFS authorizes smaller mesh size for redfish; a bill to reintroduce alewives to the St. Croix River comes into effect; federal budget cuts mean NOAA furloughs.

April 10 - 70,000 Citizens, 100 Scientists Want New England’s Waters Protected - More than a hundred prominent scientists are urging federal officials to prevent the return of damaging, bottom trawl fishing to waters that have protected fish habitat and spawning areas in New England for nearly two decades. The scientists aren’t the only ones speaking up. More than 70 thousand people sent comments opposing the proposal.

April 12 - Top Ten Reasons to Protect New England’s Closed Areas - Why should NOAA reject the plan to expand commercial fishing in 5,000 square miles of protected waters? Let us count the ways.

April 12 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, April 12 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, communities react to the start of spring herring runs; Maine’s legislature approves a bill to open fishways on the St. Croix to alewives; other Maine bills would help out large vessels and allow groundfishermen to sell lobster bycatch; the elver fishery continues to draw crime and controversy; New Bedford processors diversify; healthy menhaden stocks support smallmouth bass; the disastrous Gulf of Maine shrimp season ends; debate on closed areas continues.

A few weeks ago my colleague Peter Shelley stood in front of fishermen and policymakers and spoke about the startling decline of New England’s cod fishery. Did you know that, since 1982, it’s estimated we have lost more than 80% of the cod in New England’s ocean? That surely should be a wake up call to us all.

That day, Peter’s argument was simple, and backed by sound science. We must act quickly, he argued, to prevent the Atlantic cod – New England’s most iconic fish — from complete and utter collapse.

The response? Hisses and boos. Hisses and boos.

Peter is no fool – he knew what was coming. A fisheries expert who filed the first lawsuit that led to the cleanup of Boston Harbor, Peter has heard this same response too often. But still, this response is as startling as it is unhelpful.

The science is clear. Atlantic cod populations are at an all-time historic low. The cod fishery, which for generations has supported a way of life in New England’s coastal communities, may be in complete collapse. Don’t believe me? Watch this video of Peter explaining the science behind this critical issue.

Over the coming 14 days, NOAA – the agency in charge of setting limits on how much cod commercial fisherman can catch – is deciding how much to allow commercial fisherman to catch this year. We at CLF believe that the managers of this public resource have a responsibility to revive and rebuild cod stocks.

Instead, they are continuing a decades-long pattern of risky decision-making that has run this fishery and its communities into the ground.

We have an opportunity to urge NOAA to save the Atlantic cod from complete collapse. But we have to act now. The longer we wait, the more we risk losing this iconic fishery.

We at CLF are working to urge NOAA to do three things:

1. Shut down the commercial cod fishery, so as to save it for future generations
2. Protect cod populations, especially the adult females that produce as many as 8 million eggs a year
3. And, protect the ocean refuges that will allow cod to recover, not bow to industry pressure by opening them to more commercial fishing.

If you believe, as we at CLF believe, that the cod fishery is worth saving, please stand with thousands of New Englanders and take action today.

Now is not the time to push the limits of the law and set dangerously high catch levels. Now is not the time to bow to industry pressure. Now is not the time to risk this species for short-term gain.

Now is the time to show strength, and real leadership. Now is the time to try to save New England’s cod fishery for future generations to enjoy.

Please stand with us, and thousands of others, in calling on NOAA to protect this species before it’s too late.

March 29 - On Cod, Climate, and Closed Areas - It’s good to know NOAA has a solid plan for helping fish adapt to climate change. Now, if only someone would tell NOAA. You see, while NOAA’s right hand says protect habitat to help fish adapt to climate change, the left hand has proposed to end protection for about 5,000 sq. miles of seabed habitat.

March 29 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, March 29 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, NOAA releases a draft rule setting 2013 catch limits; a symposium discusses the Cape’s gray seal problem; CNN talks trawling and climate change; Omega Protein charged with polluting coastal waters; the Maine legislature hears arguments on alewife restoration bills; the Obama administration releases its wildlife climate adaptation strategy; Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization hearings focus on implementation.

March 18 – The Broken System - The present politically based implementation of the Magnuson Act guarantees the death of commercial fishing on the east coast of the U.S. Allowing fishermen a major voice in the councils has led to the current scarcity of cod and haddock in New England.  Every single piece of stock assessment data indicates that stocks of these two species are in dire straits, yet fishermen complain that NMFS is destroying their living  by not letting them catch more of these fish.

March 22 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, March 22 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, NOAA releases the proposed rule for Framework 48, right whales make a comeback, Maine lobstermen seek to unionize, minimum catch size limits may be forcing fish to mature at a smaller size, Senator Cowan raises concerns over use of Saltonstall-Kennedy funds; Maine legislators debate alewife bills.

March 6 - The Bottom Line: Changing Course for America’s Oldest Fishery - Recent scientific studies estimate that cod populations are at or near record lows. But this serious problem has not stopped the New England Fishery Management Council from proposing to end protection of their waters off the New England coast, a move that will make it even harder for cod—a fish that helped build the region’s economy—to recover.

March 8 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, March 8 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, the state is concerned fisherman are misreporting the location of their catch; recreational limits for cod remain unchanged for 2013; Tom Nies promises to focus on ecosystem-based management with NEFMC; a New York Times discussion series features Callum Roberts and Vito Giacalone; the Gulf of Maine is particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification; Dave Goethel asks for changes to discard calculations; Cape Pond Ice’s property in Gloucester put up for sale.

February 26 - Destructive Trawling and the Myth of “Farming the Sea” - In the wake of significant but highly warranted cuts to catch limits for cod, the New England Fishery Management Council spent the last day of their most recent meeting in January discussing the development of a suite of habitat protection measures known as the Omnibus Habitat Amendment. Despite the obvious need for new habitat protections to help restore Atlantic cod populations, the Council had already taken action to potentially open over 5000 square miles of previously protected areas to destructive bottom trawling. By doing so, the Council has continued to demonstrate a lack of regard for the immeasurable documented benefits of habitat protection to the health and productivity of our fisheries.

March 1 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, March 1 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, NOAA proposes measures to increase the monkfish catch, John Bullard writes an op-ed on the New England groundfish fishery, SMAST’s yellowtail avoidance system is growing, dogfish MSC certification expands, public lectures focus on seafood fraud and fleet consolidation, scientists Daniel Pauly, Trevor Branch, and Ray Hilborn face off in Nature.