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The past decade has had nothing but gloomy news on the fate of multiple species native to New England. Salmon have led the way, with numbers dropping consistently, and no clear reason why. Cod and other species native to the North Atlantic haven’t been far behind. Striped bass seem to be one of the exceptions, although it isn’t really clear if that is actually the case. This fall, however, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries reports some good news in regard to the stocks of haddock on Georges Bank.
The 2003 year class of haddock is estimated to be higher than the 1963 year class, which was estimated at 486 million fish. For forty years, recruitment (meaning the estimates of the fish that have spawned that year) for haddock has not reached more than 20 million fish. The last large recruitment was 75 million fish in 2000. The fish in the 2003 year class will reach the 19-inch legal size in 2006, and may provide some relief to the long suffering fisherman of New England.
The New England Fishery Management Council and the fishing industry now must face a new task, how to handle the success of this recruitment. Two key issues are bycatch of other species, such as herring, and fish over the trip limit of fisherman, as well as juvenile fish.
These positive reports about success in one area of fisheries management provide some hope for future efforts of restoring stocks of other anadromous fish native to New England, such as Atlantic salmon and sea run trout.