Collapse, recovery and collapse of an important fishery

Alexander C. Hansell1, Melanie Barrett², Steven X. Cadrin³, Cole Carrano³,
Jessie Kittel³,Christopher M. Legault¹

¹Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole, MA, USA

²Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St. Andrews, NB, Canada

³University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, School for Marine Science and Technology,
New Bedford MA, USA

 

Hansell, A.C., Barrett, M., Cadrin, S.X., Carrano, C., Kittel, J., and Legault, C.M. 2025. Collapse, recovery and collapse of an important fishery. J. Northw. Atl. Fish. Sci., 56. 31–46. https://doi.org/10.2960/J.v56.m752

Abstract

Georges Bank is a shallow plateau off the coast of New England that has supported productive fisheries for centuries. One of these fisheries targeted yellowtail flounder (Limanda ferruginea), which at its peak caught over 21 000 mt a year. However, the stock has fluctuated, with periods of high abundance (1970s and 2000s) and low stock size (1990s and 2020s). A review published twenty years ago documented the collapse of the stock in the 1990s and subsequent recovery in the 2000s, hypothesizing the major reason for recovery was bilateral science and successfully coordinated management intervention. Unfortunately, by the time that review was published, the stock had started to decrease again and collapsed in the 2010s. We provide an updated historical review of the fishery and past stock assessments. We conduct new analyses of empirical indicators of spatial distribution and growth for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder and project the stock into the future using the most recent stock assessment. Results suggest that fishing was the likely cause of initial stock depletion while environmental changes, particularly bottom temperature, has limited recovery in recent years. Projections suggest that the population can increase in the future but its ability to increase is related to bottom temperature on Georges Bank. These results give insight into the dynamics an iconic New England fishery and stock, as well as, provide a unique opportunity to study the fluctuations of a stock through multiple periods of recovery and collapse.

 

Key words: Environment, Overfishing, Stock Assessment, Yellowtail flounder

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Citation: Hansell, A.C., Barrett, M., Cadrin, S.X., Carrano, C., Kittel, J., and Legault, C.M.. 2025. Collapse, recovery and collapse of an important fishery. J. Northw. Atl. Fish. Sci., 56. 31–46. https://doi.org/10.2960/J.v56.m752