AUGUSTA — 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. 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. 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.

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.

Fishermen could face further reductions in the cod quota for 2013.

For more maritime news, pick up a copy of the Mount Desert Islander.