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   From: croakley@failure.biz   
      
   WASHINGTON –  Federal regulators slapped a six-month ban on most   
   cod fishing off New England this week and are threatening to cut   
   next year’s catch by up to 75 percent, in a move some say will   
   destroy the livelihoods of fishermen across the region.   
      
   Starting Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric   
   Administration is shutting down cod fishing from Provincetown,   
   Mass., to the Canadian border, as part of a plan to reverse   
   dwindling numbers of cod in the Gulf of Maine. That means no   
   fishermen may trawl in NOAA-designated areas until April 30,   
   2015. This comes on top of prior efforts by the U.S. and   
   Canadian governments to restrict cod fishing in the nearby   
   Georges Bank.   
      
   NOAA announced several measures, including the ban which expands   
   no-fishing zones, on Monday. But fishermen whose livelihoods   
   rely on catching cod, as well as the coastal communities that   
   depend on money coming in from that industry, worry the new   
   regulations will devastate them.   
      
   “It’s all over! I’m done,” Gloucester-area fisherman Joe Orlando   
   told Boston’s Fox 25. “My grandfather’s done it, my father’s   
   done it. I brought my kids into doing it.”   
      
   Orlando, whose family has been in the business for 40 years, is   
   used to catching 700 to 2,500 pounds per day, he told Fox 25.   
   But with NOAA’s no-fishing zones, coupled with limits on hauls,   
   Orlando says his boat is now too small to make it into the   
   allowable fishing zones which are farther offshore.   
      
   "And now I'm left with nothing. I just threw it all away,"   
   Orlando, who makes close to $150,000 per year from cod, said.   
      
   Regulators had already cut the 2013 catch limits of cod by 77   
   percent from the year before to 1,550 metric tons.   
      
   NOAA believes cod have been over-fished and the number of cod   
   stocks have dried up. The scientists believe the best shot they   
   have of avoiding a population collapse altogether is enforcing a   
   ban.   
      
   Cod levels have dipped significantly for more than 20 years.   
   Despite plans to rebuild the fish population in the Northeast,   
   cod have failed to rebound and scientists don’t seem to know why.   
      
   “This is a stock that is in free fall,” NOAA regional   
   administrator John Bullard told National Public Radio. He added   
   that the numbers were the worst the agency has seen in four   
   decades.   
      
   There are two types of cod that come from the U.S. -- Atlantic   
   and Pacific cod. The new regulations apply only to the Atlantic   
   kind, in the Gulf of Maine.   
      
   Atlantic cod generally is more abundant, and it's unclear   
   whether the federal restrictions would result in prices rising --   
    or whether Pacific cod would simply take its place in some   
   areas. (In most places, Pacific cod -- a larger fish that   
   produces meatier fillets -- is slightly cheaper than Atlantic   
   cod, which is smaller and sweeter-tasting) The U.S. also imports   
   cod from countries like China, Russia and Iceland.   
      
   The U.S. also is a major cod supplier on the world market,   
   providing more than two-thirds of the world's Pacific cod.   
      
   There have been sweeping fluctuations in cod stocks, and federal   
   regulations for fishing them, for decades. NOAA officials, in   
   response to industry concerns, last year tried to cushion the   
   financial blow to fishermen by increasing the quota for haddock.   
   Congress this year also approved more than $33 million in aid   
   for the fishing industry in New England.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/11/12/noaa-puts-ban-on-cod-   
   fishing-hurts-family-businesses-and-coastal-communities/   
      
       
      
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