On the working docks of Gloucester, fishermen see heavy regulation and international competition, not to mention a pandemic that has all but wiped out commercial demand. Where they differ is the source of that crisis. “I’m 50 years old and I don’t know what the hell I am.”īoth scientists and fishers agree the cod fishery is at a crisis point. And here I am today: recycler, bike seller, furniture-maker. Ice companies, wharves, fish dealers, truckers, supermarkets … All through high school, I was always a fisherman. “This used to be the biggest fishing community in the world. “We’ve been regulated out of existence,” former Gloucester fisherman Sam Sanfilippo said in 2017. These have placed a burden on fishermen, many of whom dispute the scientific data, creating tension between some scientists and fishermen and threatening the identity of person and place in a town where culture and economy were, for centuries, intertwined around cod. In Gloucester, that has meant regulation to protect the stocks – including catch limits, monitoring and no-fishing zones. With the climate crisis warming waters and disrupting cod spawning behaviour and food sources, many scientists wonder if the stocks will survive at all. Both major stocks of North Atlantic cod in US waters – the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank cod – are overfished. New England’s cod population has been diminished by new fishing technology, too many boats and foreign vessels, and poor management decisions.
The vast majority of the cod for sale is frozen, shipped in from Norway or Iceland. Today, you’re unlikely to find fresh Atlantic cod in any American food shop.
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