Conservation Law Foundation Charges NOAA With Risky Management Decisions That Could Lead to the Collapse of Atlantic Cod

Maintaining and Expanding Protected Areas in New England’s Ocean Critical to Recovery Says CLF’s Peter Shelley

CONTACT:
Karen Wood, CLF: 617.850.1722
Peter Shelley, CLF: 617.510.1404

BOSTON  April 30, 2013 –  Today, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a press release summarizing its newly issued limits on the amount of Atlantic cod, haddock, and other groundfish that commercial fishing boats around New England are allowed to catch in the new fishing season which begins tomorrow, May 1. The anticipated catch limits on the most endangered stocks, while expected to be greatly reduced from last year’s quotas, will still allow excessive mortality levels, putting the future of the fishery at risk. Even more troubling, the agency appears be leaving the door open for fishermen to access some areas that have been closed to commercial fishing for years, further increasing the risks of a full collapse of cod populations in the region. With fisheries scientists in agreement that cod are at historically low levels and that the species shows no sign of recovery, CLF issued the following response to NOAA’s release:

“This decision to continue to allow directed fishing on cod is yet another self-inflicted wound by the managers of Atlantic codfish, who continue to take short-sighted actions that don’t go far enough to rebuild cod stocks, and, as a consequence, may now be putting the entire species at risk of total collapse,” said Peter Shelley, Senior Counsel at Conservation Law Foundation. “The most important thing we can do now to restore this iconic species is to protect the last refuges for cod in New England and leave the few remaining codfish in the ocean so they can grow and spawn. NOAA shouldn’t be allowing commercial fishermen access to those crucial protected areas; they should be expanding them and keeping them off limits to commercial fishing.”

Today’s action by NOAA seems to open the possibility for the first time that nearly 5,000 square miles of currently protected areas in New England waters will be re-opened to commercial fishing – a proposal that particularly threatens cod populations. These areas, which include biodiversity hotspots like Cashes Ledge, have been protecting habitat and contributing to the recovery of a number of the healthier fish species for nearly two decades.

“We need to keep these refuges closed if there is going to be any chance of codfish rebuilding. The responsible way forward is to protect and expand ocean refuges like Cashes Ledge, not bow to industry pressure by opening them up to commercial fishing,” Shelley said. “We need to reduce the number of large, adult female cod that are being caught and killed, and increase the number that survive to spawn the next generations of Atlantic cod. Opening up these areas would only continue the decades-long pattern of risky decision-making that has run this fishery and its communities into the ground.”

Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) protects New England’s environment for the benefit of all people. Using the law, science and the market, CLF creates solutions that preserve natural resources, build healthy communities, and sustain a vibrant economy region-wide. Founded in 1966, CLF is a nonprofit, member-supported organization with offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

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