Rebuilding Gulf of Maine cod will require protection of older spawners (Opinion)
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Press-Herald] By Lisa Kerr and Graham Sherwood - September 29, 2014 -
Recovering Maine's cod stock from its current all-time low will entail building a stock that is much more resilient to adverse conditions.
There are more old, large cod inside the few regions in the Gulf of Maine that restrict fishing. These closed areas, which were established in the 1990s to reduce groundfish mortality, may be the best tool for protecting older, larger females, and current plans to alter their boundaries should be considered very carefully in light of the current cod situation.
It may be that warming ocean conditions will make it harder and harder for cod - a sub-Arctic species at the southern end of its range - to exist in the Gulf of Maine. Efforts to protect diversity within the stock should help buffer cod against highly variable climate and ocean conditions, which are likely to intensify in the future.
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