Maine - Emergency Plan Would Limit Cod Fishing - NYTimes.com Fishermen from Cape Cod, Mass., to northern Maine would have to reduce the amount of cod they catch under an emergency proposal by the New England Fishery Management Council. The proposal, a nonbinding request to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would reduce the catch of Gulf of Maine cod by as much as 20 percent in the fishing year that starts May 1. It would be an interim step, meant to delay a much steeper cut that federal regulators believe is needed to end overfishing. If regulators approve the interim measure, they will revisit the possibility of more severe restrictions next year.