Comparison of Trends in Average Length of Cod in the Commercial FIshery and Recreational Fishery

Both the recreational cod fishery and the commercial cod fishery are giant industries in New England. Both fisheries remove cod from the same Gulf of Maine population therefore both fisheries are making an impact on the same cod stock. Now that we have seen both the trends in average length of recreationally-caught cod over time and the trends in average length of commercially-caught cod over time, we must look at both fisheries together.

Graph created by E. Brazer Jr.

As you can see there occurs a general increase in the average lengths of cod landed in both fisheries. The average lengths of the recreationally-caught cod appear to increase more over the 18-year study than commercially-caught cod. This may be a result of the relatively small numbers of cod caught recreationally. In the recreational fishery a smaller number of cod are landed, but a proportionately larger number of "large" cod are landed. This skews the data. The commercial fishery, however, may land more "large" cod than the recreational fishery, but they are also landing so many "small-to-medium" cod that the average size is closer to the "small-to-medium" size. One other interesting observation to make is that between 1999 and 2000 the average length of commercially-landed cod increased approximately the same length as the average length of the recreationally-landed cod decreased. It is too soon and there is too little data available presently to determine why this is so. It is also difficult to determine why the average lengths of recreationally-landed cod peaked in 1986 and 1992 but the average length of the commercially-landed cod did not have the same result.