The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation is kicking off a new project to collect data on black sea bass, a species that has moved north in search of cooler water.
Catch limits for black sea bass in New England are a small compared to the Mid-Atlantic states, where the fish are typically found, according to Anna Malek Mercer, the foundation’s executive director. That means New England fishermen are throwing back very large quantities of black sea bass, she said. And it’s a highly valuable species.
So this will fetch at the dock between $4 and $7 a pound,” said Malek Mercer. “It’s super important in that way. Really could begin to fill some of this economic void caused by the downturns in things like ground fish and southern New England lobsters.”
