NOAA Fisheries has extended an emergency action to keep the Northeast commercial multispecies fishery open, ensuring that New England groundfish harvesters can continue operating in the absence of regular management measures for the 2025 season.
“This inability to fish would result in substantial adverse economic impacts on vessel owners and operators, dealers, and the fishing communities that rely on them,” NOAA Fisheries noted in a Federal Register notice justifying the extension.
The announcement guarantees implementation of a controversial change to managing the fishery’s cod stocks – Amendment 25 – will be delayed by at least a year. The amendment would split the existing two cod stocks into four individual stocks: the Eastern Gulf of Maine, Western Gulf of Maine, Southern New England, and Georges Bank.
Despite opposition to the plan from commercial fishers, the New England Fisheries Management Council passed the amendment in December 2024 for implementation in the 2025 season. The council then sent both the amendment and Framework Adjustment 69 – which would have set regulations for cod, haddock, flounder, and other fish stocks for the 2025 season – on to the U.S. Department of Commerce for approval.
However, the federal government had still not approved either Framework Adjustment 69 or Amendment 25 ahead of the 1 May season start date. In order to ensure commercial fishers’ operations were not delayed while the federal government finished its approval of the framework, NOAA Fisheries issued an emergency rule in May authorizing fishing for 180 days. The emergency rule kept the two-stock cod management plan from 2024 in place, effectively delaying the change by a year or until new regulations were approved.
That initial emergency rule is set to expire 28 October, but over the summer the Department of Commerce officially rejected Amendment 25. While the department lent its approval to the plan to split the cod fishery into four stocks, it found NEFMC’s submission inadequate on technicalities. It invited the council to revise and resubmit the amendment, but that meant there are still no regulations ready to be implemented once the emergency rule expires. According to the Federal Register, the government is still considering Framework Adjustment 69.
To keep the multispecies fishery open, NOAA Fisheries has decided to extend the emergency rule through 30 April 2026.
“An extension of the emergency rule is necessary to address the continuing emergency arising from the lack of approved specifications and other measures for the full fishing year 2025,” NOAA Fisheries stated in the Federal Register. “Absent an extension of the rule, the lack of measures on October 29, 2025, would create serious conservation and management problems for the fishery and severe economic harm to the Northeast multispecies fishery participants. Without this extension, vessels participating in the groundfish fishery would be unable to fish for the remainder of the 2025 fishing year.”
Both the Northeast Seafood Coalition (NSC) and the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund (GFCPF) asked the government to increase the annual catch limit for the remainder of the 2025 season to 75 percent of the 2024 ACL. That request was denied, with NOAA Fisheries preferring to stay in line with the council’s plans for the 2025 season, which included a 43 percent cut to the total 2024 ACL.
