Quota for cod going up as stocks show slight rebound

The fishing quota for Atlantic cod is scheduled for a slight increase on May 1 in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank.

According to an Associated Press report published by the Bangor Daily News, cod catch reached an all-time low due to quota constraints to date. But that’s resulted in a slight rebound for the stock. 

The U.S. cod fishery, based mostly in Massachusetts and Maine, brought in annual catches of more than 100 million pounds in the early 1980s, and 3.2 million pounds in 2016. The New England Fishery Management Council has proposed a nearly 3.9 million pounds quota for 2018, which is about double the previous commercial cod quota.