Fishing fleet returns to sea in Gloucester with June after two months of enforced closures for stock rebuilding. It is said that the temporary ban was put on the inshore grounds, teeming with haddock and cod this time of year, to recover the stocks. Now the areas were opened again by federal fishery regulators at midnight Sunday. Capt. Billy Cunningham of the 36-foot gillnetter Fair Wind, reported that probably the whole fleet was out there, 40-odd boats.
Fishermen are happy to be back on the sea after two months. Most of then reached the port with a catch from the delayed opening of the fishing season. The catch will be sold at this morning’s auction, but at recent prices which have hovered at a robust $2 a pound, the trip will gross $1,600, before the auction and off-loading fees are deducted. According to Cunningham he left port for the renewal of commercial fishing at 6 p.m. Sunday, and quickly located his prey on Middle Bank by experience and use of a fish finder.
It is told that the idea of closed areas is hotly debated, the rolling closures that kept the day boat fleet in the port of Gloucester since April 1 have been used by the National Marine Fisheries Service for about a decade as a means of protecting spawning cod and reducing fishing pressure on the stock, which is recovering from overfishing in generations past. It is true that the impact of the closing of the inshore grounds is complicated, and always harder on crew members, who are often left to hustle for secondary jobs while the inshore grounds are closed.
