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Major technological innovations began to destabilize the NEw England groundfish populations.
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By 1930, the groundfishing fleet was sufficiently large that it had prompted a crash in the Georges Bank haddock fishery,
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In the mid-1950s, huge factory ships from Europe and the Soviety Union began to roam the North Atlantic just beyond U.S. coastal waters. The overfishing behavior of these boats began to greatly affect the groundfish population.
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Garret Hardin publishes a 1968 "Science" magazine article detaling when a resource is open to everyone, those who use it will inevitably overexploit it.
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In 1974, 1076 fishing vessels swarmed across the Atlantic to fish North American waters, causing massive damage the fish population.
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The industry was taking 50 to 100 percent more than the already weakened groundfish stocks could sustain and catches remained high until 1983, at which point they started to decline.
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In spring 1978, in hopes of moving away from the short-term, reactionary policymaking it had engaged in thius far, the council set to work on a more comprehesive, long-term fishery management plan.
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The plan allowed open fishing and required only "Age-at-entry" controls in the form of minimum fish sizes and minimum mesh sizes.
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The 1985 FMP adds one new element to the definition of overfishing; it incorporated biological targets for stocks covered by the plan" the total catch should not exceed 20 percent of the maximum spawning potential for most stocks.
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As a result, the new FMP did little to improve the prospects for New England's groundfish: stock assessments continued to show increases in mortality rates and corresponding decreases in stock sizes.
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The number of mature adults dropped to a record low.
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In August 1994 - only months after the council adopted it - NEFSC scientists released more bad news; they warned that even reducing fishing by 50 percent over the next five to seven years would not be enough to save the groundfish.
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Canadian fisheries had depleted the area to an all-time low, taking more than 70 percent of the groundfish swimming there each year.
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Fishers upset because scientists apparently did not reach a consensus and don't see the things they see.
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Compensates fishers who retired their fishing vessels and groundfish permits and thereby reduced excess capacity in the fleet.
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The act had two goals: to rejuvenate the American fishing fleet and to restore and conserve fish stocks.
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Found that Gulf of Maine stocks of white hake, American plaice, and yellowtail flounder remained seriously depleted.
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