History of redfish in New England

Redfish wasn’t always the hidden gem it is today. Between the 1930s and 1960s, it was heavily landed for the booming frozen fillet industry. By the 1980s, decades of high catch rates left the population depleted.

That changed with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, stricter quotas, and the establishment of the New England Fishery Management Council. Foreign trawlers were pushed out of U.S. waters, domestic effort shifted and over time, the stock began to rebound.

By 2012, NOAA declared the species fully rebuilt—a rare success story in fisheries management. Today, it’s once again a reliable year-round catch for New England fleets, landing in ports from Gloucester to Portland to New Bedford.