Will new fishing measures help rebuild Atlantic cod stock? Here's your chance for input
The New England Fishery Management Council will host three public workshops, including one in Rhode Island, to identify challenges and discuss ideas for how to address Atlantic cod management, considering that Atlantic cod will now be assessed as four biological stock units instead of two.
The council used to receive stock assessments for Gulf of Maine cod and Georges Bank cod. It now will receive assessments for (1) Western Gulf of Maine cod, (2) Georges Bank cod under new stock boundaries, (3) Eastern Gulf of Maine cod and (4) Southern New England cod. As a result, the council must deal with these new biological stock units on a management level.
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The three workshops will offer fishermen and other stakeholders an opportunity to weigh in before the council begins formulating alternatives under Phase 2 of the Atlantic Cod Management Transition Plan. (For details on plans and to register for below workshops, visit nefmc.org.)
Recreational anglers, including myself, have been excited about catching cod while tautog fishing close to shore off Newport and Point Judith over the past few years. The bite has been good at the East Fishing Ground 3 miles east of Block Island, at Cox Ledge 14 miles off Point Judith, and last year a seven-year fish abundance in the Block Island Wind Farm showed a greater abundance of cod in the wind farm area compared to two control areas south and east of the Island.
“Atlantic cod stocks in our region have declined dramatically. They are overfished and continue to be subject to overfishing,” said a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries statement. In a 2020 petition to end overfishing and rebuild Atlantic cod, the Conservation Law Foundation said: “In 30 years, since [the National Marine Fisheries Service] was first ordered by a federal court to prevent overfishing of Atlantic cod, NMFS has approved 16 amendments to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan and 53 framework adjustments, none of which has actually prevented overfishing.”
Let us hope dividing the cod into four distinct biological stocks with separate spawning grounds helps to preserve spawning grounds so we enhance our ability to rebuild cod rather than give New England another excuse to continue overfishing Atlantic cod.
All workshops are from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and are being offered in Portland, Maine, on Tuesday (the Westin Hotel, 157 High St.); Wakefield, Mass., on Wednesday (the Four Points Sheraton, One Audubon Road); and South Kingstown on Thursday (at the Hampton Inn, 20 Hotel Drive).
So, attend a cod workshop and be heard, as we must insist that any measures taken will prevent overfishing of this stock, and not just be a license to take more fish.
Where’s the bite?
Freshwater. Tom Giddings of the Tackle Box in Warwick said: “Anglers are fishing stocked ponds for trout and are doing well.”
Jeff Sullivan of Lucky Bait & Tackle in Warren reported: “The largemouth and trout bite has been outstanding this past week. We are just at the beginning of the pre-spawn period, so in a couple of days as the water warms, the largemouth bite will do nothing but improve in the shallows. [The Department of Environmental Management] in Rhode Island did a great job stocking once again this year The trout last week were keying in on natural bait presentations, which is unusual for newly stocked fish as they often are first interested in artificial baits until they acclimate.,”
Striped bass. “At the beginning of last week," said Elisa Cahill of Snug Harbor Marina in South Kingstown, "we had migrating striped bass being caught at the West Wall of the Harbor of Refuge and then things slowed for the remainder of the week. Anglers fishing from the beaches are getting sporadic action, too.”
Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle in Providence reported: “Migrating striped bass with lice on them are in Narragansett Bay. Anglers are catching them with clams, sea worms, but the most popular way has been swimming and surface lures with SP Minnows working well for anglers.”
Sullivan said: “The striped bass are in Mt. Hope Bay and in the East Passage all the way up to the Providence River. We have a lot of adult Atlantic menhaden in the water, more than usual, but what seems to be working for anglers are top water, needle fish and shad lures.”
Tautog. "Customers are catching a lot of short fish in the Providence Fox Point and India Point areas but some nice keepers have been caught at Plum Beach Light in North Kingstown,” Giddings said.
Sullivan said: “Tautog fishing has been improving with fish being caught in Providence and in our estuaries like the Warren River.”
Cahill reported: “The tautog bite is pretty good. Anglers did well catching double-digit fish south of Block Island last week, but also anglers are doing well at the breachways with customers catching 5- to 6-pound fish. And some anglers are catching an occasional cod fish when tautog fishing.”
Dave Monti holds a master captain’s license and charter fishing license. He serves on a variety of boards and commissions and has a consulting business that focuses on clean oceans, habitat preservation, conservation, renewable energy and fisheries-related issues and clients. Forward fishing news and photos to dmontifish@verizon.net or visit noflukefishing.com.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New fishing measures aimed at rebuilding cod stock. Workshops set.
