- Division of Marine Fisheries
The quotas described herein are subject to change. Check the Division’s quota monitoring webpage for updates.
Atlantic Herring: 5,974,527 pounds (coastwide quota)
The 2025 coastwide commercial quota for Atlantic herring represents an 86% reduction from 2024 and is the lowest quota ever set for the species. These 2025 specifications are based on the results of the 2024 stock assessment, which indicated the stock remains overfished with all-time low biomass being driven by continued poor recruitment. The coastwide limit is allocated among four management areas: 28.9% to Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine), 4.3% to Area 1B (offshore Gulf of Maine), 27.8% to Area 2 (south of Cape Cod), and 39% to Area 3 (Georges Bank). These new catch limits will not support a directed commercial fishery for Atlantic herring. A research track assessment is underway and is scheduled for review in March 2025. Research will evaluate new datasets that can either inform or be used in new or existing stock assessment models. The goal is to develop an improved stock assessment for Atlantic herring that can be used for future management track assessments. The next management track assessment is scheduled for June 2026 and would impact management specifications for 2027 and beyond.
Atlantic Menhaden: 10,838,902 pounds (MA quota)
2025 marks the third year of a roughly 10.8-million-pound Atlantic menhaden commercial quota for Massachusetts, the highest level since state-by-state quota management was established in 2013. Massachusetts receives a 2.12% allocation of the coastwide quota, which was set at roughly 515 million pounds in multi-year specifications for 2023–2025. The pending 2025 stock assessment will provide the foundation for setting the 2026–2028 quotas. The Massachusetts menhaden fishery, which provides bait for anglers and lobster harvesters primarily, performed very differently in 2023 and 2024 under the same quota level. In 2023, environmental conditions influenced the local distribution of menhaden and the fishery took little more than a quarter of the quota (about 3 million pounds landed), whereas in 2024, DMF acquired several transfers of additional quota from other states to allow continued fishing access amidst plentiful nearshore availability of menhaden (resulting in over 12.5 million pounds landed). DMF continues to adjust and fine-tune the fishery’s regulations in response to fishery performance, changing quota levels, and management requirements under the interstate management plan. For 2025, DMF will be proposing several possible revisions to the trip limits and access levels.
Black Sea Bass: 787,216 pounds (MA quota)
The outlook for Massachusetts’ 2025 quota is a 15% reduction from 2024 (when the quota was 926,338 pounds). The state’s quota has ranged between 725,000 and 1 million pounds the last five years. The decrease in 2025 is attributed to a shift in the resource’s regional biomass distribution (north and south of Hudson Canyon), which is factored into the quota allocation formula. Whereas the 2021 stock assessment used in the allocation formula for 2022–2024 portrayed 85% of the biomass being north of Hudson Canyon and only 15% to the south, the 2024 stock assessment indicates a more equal distribution of the resource—52% north of and 48% south of Hudson Canyon. Consequently, Massachusetts share of the coastwide quota for 2025 is 13.12% rather than the 15.44% it has been the past three years. The underlying coastwide commercial quota for 2025 is the same as 2024 at 6.00 million pounds.
Bluefish: 262,663 pounds (MA quota)
The Massachusetts bluefish fishery will see a 33% increase in its quota for 2025 (compared to its 2024 allocated quota of roughly 198,000 pounds). This is on account of a 25% increase in the coastwide quota and a slight bump in Massachusetts’ percent share of that coastwide quota. 2025 is the fourth year of a 7-year phase-in of revised state-by-state allocations which will ultimately take MA’s share from its historical allocation of roughly 6.71% to just over 10.11%. Midway through a 7-year rebuilding plan, the bluefish stock’s biomass is projected to increase from 2024 to 2025 hence the increasing coastwide quota. State landings in 2024 were below quota at roughly 150,000 pounds, most of which was caught between mid-July and mid-September, with lower amounts both before and after representing the season of bluefish availability. No changes to the commercial measures are expected.
Horseshoe Crab: 140,000 bait crabs and 200,000 biomedical crabs (MA quotas)
Massachusetts’ two distinct horseshoe crab quotas will remain status quo with their 2023–2024 levels. The bait quota supports the harvest of horseshoe crab for use primarily in whelk pots, whereas the biomedical quota supports the catch and subsequent release of horseshoe crabs from which blood is drawn for use in testing the safety of biomedical products. Crabs harvested under the bait quota may also be borrowed from bait dealers for bleeding by biomedical firms prior to sale to bait users. Under these quota levels in 2024, the bait fishery for horseshoe crab closed on October 21. An automatic trip limit reduction based on quota use (more than 80% of quota taken on or before September 1) helped extend the season. The biomedical quota was also nearly taken in full.
Scup: 1,642,936 pounds (MA Summer Period quota)
At 19.54 million pounds, the 2025 coastwide commercial scup quota represents a 7.6% reduction from 2024 but remains at a very high level based on the stock biomass being well above target. The Winter I (January–April) and Winter II (October–December) Periods, which are open to all states at federally set trip limits, receive 45.11% and 15.94% of the quota, respectively; this equates to 8.81 and 3.11 million pounds for 2025. The Summer Period fishery (May–September) receives 38.95% of the coastwide quota (7.61 million pounds for 2025), which is further distributed into state shares, with Massachusetts receiving 21.6% (1.64 million pounds). No aspect of the commercial fishery is expected to be constrained by these quotas. For example, the 2024 Summer Period fishery in Massachusetts landed less than 600,000 pounds of scup. Public and private efforts are trying to increase market demand for this ample, yet underutilized, species.
Spiny Dogfish: 5,416,486 pounds (ME–CT Regional Quota)
The coastwide spiny dogfish quota for the 2025 fishing year of May 1, 2025–April 30, 2026 is expected to be set at roughly 9.34 million pounds, of which the Northern Region of Maine–Connecticut receives a 58% share. This coastwide quota represents a 9% reduction from the final FY2024 quota (after accounting for a 2023 overage), but is only a third of the roughly 30-million pound quotas set just a few years prior. Coastwide landings show an overall declining trend since peaking in 2012 at roughly 27 million pounds; landings in 2023 were below 10 million pounds and 2024 landings are tracking below this. The reduction in quotas reflects the assessment’s finding of a less productive spiny dogfish stock. Concern has been raised about the solvency of the fishery under the declining quota. NOAA Fisheries and the regional fishery management councils have taken extraordinary steps to set the quotas as high as possible within legal limits the past two years (i.e., an emergency action for FY24 and suspension of the Council risk policy for FY25).
Striped Bass: 683,773 pounds (MA quota)
Massachusetts’ allocated quota under the interstate fishery management plan remains 683,773 pounds at a 35” minimum size limit. 2024 landings came in just below this level (based on DMF’s closure of the quota-managed fishery) so there is no overage to account for in 2025. The ASMFC Striped Bass Management Board has initiated an addendum to consider whether additional fishery restrictions (including a possible quota reduction) should be implemented in 2026 to support rebuilding the stock by 2029. The Board took this action in response to the 2024 stock assessment and associated projections, some of which indicated a less than 50% chance of rebuilding by the deadline (depending on the assumptions made). Rather than taking immediate action for 2025, which was also contemplated, the Board initiated the addendum to allow for full 2024 data to be incorporated into the projections, for management options to be further developed, and to provide for regular public comment processes. Note that if DMF were to change the size limit for the commercial fishery, this would affect the state’s quota; for example, implementing a maximum size or reducing the minimum size would require a quota reduction to maintain spawning potential. DMF is evaluating the merits of such an action for 2025.
Summer Flounder: 571,147 pounds (MA quota)
The 2025 coastwide quota for summer flounder (8.79 million pounds) and MA’s percent share of it (6.82%) remain unchanged from 2024. However, MA’s baseline quota of 599,507 pounds for the two years was adjusted downward in 2025 due to a small quota overage in 2024. The two-year specifications set for 2024–2025 reduced Massachusetts’ quota by 56% from 2023 on account of the most recent stock assessment correcting for prior overly-optimistic results, in conjunction with a reduction in Massachusetts share caused by a lowering of the coastwide quota below 9.55 million pounds. Amendment 21 established equal allocations of 12.375% for any coastwide quota above 9.55 million pounds, whereas quota below this amount remains allocated based on 1980-1989 landings, or 6.82% for MA. Under higher coastwide quotas in 2021–2023, Massachusetts allocation was between 8-9%. In 2024, under this lower quota, the summer flounder fishery closed effective August 28. DMF is considering management changes for 2025 to try to maintain some fishery access into September or later.
Tautog: 57,942 pounds (MA quota)
While Massachusetts’s baseline tautog quota of 64,753 pounds has remained unchanged since 2008, the quota is often adjusted to account for a prior year quota overage. (The combination of the relatively low quota with highly variable daily catch rates makes closing the fishery at precisely 100% quota use nearly impossible.) A roughly 6,800-lb quota overage in 2024 results in an overage-adjusted quota for 2025 that is slightly lower than that in place in 2024 (59,981 pounds). The 2024 fishery ran from its September 1 opening date through October 5 before facing a quota closure.
By Nichola Meserve, Fishery Policy Analyst
