PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – One of the oldest marine industries in the United States suffered the least productive year in its recorded history last year in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Maine cod fishery stretches back centuries and has been in dire straits in recent years because of tough new management measures and a lack of fish.

The 2020 fishery brought less than 59,000 pounds of fish to the docks. That is more than 20,000 pounds less than 2017. That was previously the least productive year.

The fishery routinely topped 10 million pounds per year in the 1980s and early 1990s.