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Sea Change | The New England Fishing Crisis
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Understanding a cryptic resource
In principle, predicting population changes should be simple: Estimate the number of cod, figure out how many reproduce, and calculate how many die. But the devil is in the details. Each phase of a cod's life is affected by a large number of factors, making projections complex and prone to significant errors. Despite 400 years of intense fishing, there's still a lot about cod that scientists don't know.
SOURCES: Prof. Ione Hunt von Herbing, University of Maine; Steven Murawski, National Marine Fisheries Service;
Fishes of the Gulf of Maine, 3d edition; NMFS Essential Fish Habitats document for Atlantic cod, NMFS-NE-124
Graphic: Globe Staff / Sean McNaughton
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