ELLSWORTH — While environmentalists worry about endangered whales getting tangled up in fishing gear, Maine fishermen are feeling trapped by an increasingly restrictive web of new regulations.

Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that fishermen will be able to land up to 6,700 metric tons of Gulf of Maine cod during the fishing year that began on Tuesday. The quota is substantially lower than it was for the year that ended Monday, but the cut was nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

Federal law required that the cod stock be rebuilt to sustainable levels by 2014. Until last fall, fisheries managers believed that the cod resource in the Gulf of Maine was in good shape and that the rebuilding target would be met. A new stock assessment released by NOAA scientists in November said otherwise.

Although the cod stock was growing, estimates of how fast were way too high. The new assessment suggested that the stock could not be rebuilt by 2014 even if cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine stopped immediately.

Using the new data, NOAA determined that it would have to cut the cod quota by 80-85 percent, to just 1,300 metric tons. Faced with potential economic disaster, the fishing industry worked with NOAA’s Fisheries Service to identify certain areas of flexibility under the federal law that allowed them to set the 2012 quota at 6,700 metric tons, a 22 percent reduction.

To reflect changes in the commercial fishery aimed at reducing the number of cod discarded on fishing boats, Maine last week changed the size limits in the recreational cod fishery to let anglers keep smaller fish.

Under the old rule, fishermen had to throw back cod shorter than 24 inches. Now, the minimum size is 19 inches, but the daily limit has been reduced from 10 to nine.

The reprieve may be only temporary. Fisheries scientists are continuing to review stock numbers and fishermen could face further reductions in the cod quota for 2013.

For more maritime news, pick up a copy of The Ellsworth American.