BLUE HILL (AP) – A six-year study suggests that cod spawned in Maine waters tend to stay and grow larger but more slowly than cod in other regions.

Designed to track the movements of Atlantic cod in the Gulf of Maine and beyond, the Northeast Regional Cod Tagging Program is the largest and most widespread study of its kind to date. It provides a snapshot of the cod population and how it moves, according to Shelly Tallack, a research scientist with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland.

Volunteer fishermen tagged and released thousands of cod throughout three large cod management zones in the U.S. and Canada – the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and the Scotian Shelf area which includes the Bay of Fundy.