PLYMOUTH, MA – If nothing significant changes in the next few months, the 2013 quota for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder is likely to be a chokehold on both the Atlantic sea scallop and groundfish fisheries next year.
Georges Bank is home to New England’s most abundant resource – haddock – and serves as a vital fishing ground for scallopers, who, depending on fluctuations in recruitment, harvest one-third to one-half or more of their annual landings there.
Yet when the New England Fishery Management Council met Sept. 25-27 in Plymouth, it was painfully clear that both industries could end up hostage to Georges Bank yellowtail, one of three transboundary stocks shared with Canada and distributed under provisions outlined in the US/Canada Resource Sharing Understanding.
Read the rest and much, much more in the November issue of Commercial Fisheries News. Read online immediately and download for future reference.
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