Commercial fishermen in New England are facing severe cuts in their catch limits next year because of the poor condition of populations of so-called groundfish, regulators said Thursday.
Several important groundfish species are in poor shape and some catch limits for 2013 will have to be sharply reduced from this year's levels, fishermen were told at a New England Fishery Management Council groundfish committee meeting in Portsmouth, N.H.
The final numbers aren't in, but officials said preliminary information indicates that catch limits could go down by 72 percent for the cod population in the Gulf of Maine and 70 percent for cod on the Georges Bank fishing grounds east of Cape Cod.
The catch limit could go down by 73 percent for Georges Bank haddock, 51 percent for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder and 69 percent for a flounder known as American plaice.
