BOSTON — New England fishermen and federal data reports are telling the same story this year: The catch is way down.
Two-thirds of the way through the 2012 fishing year, which ends April 30, fishermen have caught less than half their allotments on 14 of 16 species of bottom-dwelling groundfish.
For instance, fishermen have caught just a quarter of their allotment of cod on Georges Bank. And they’ve pulled home a scant 3 percent of the quota of haddock on Georges Bank. The catch on Gulf of Maine cod is down by about half.
The numbers come as regulators at the New England Fishery Management Council agonize over potentially devastating cuts to catch quotas in 2013, which fishermen warn will bury them. The issue is so freighted with anxiety that the council called a special December meeting to decide the cuts, then pushed the decision off until January.
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