We’ve decided that the East Coast’s biggest gamblers aren’t necessarily spending their time at Atlantic City or at Oxford Casino.

Some of them have made huge investments in fishing boats and gear, unaware of what will happen when government agencies roll the dice on fishing regulations. It’s a crap shoot, no matter how you look at it.

We’ve been reading the latest issue of Commercial Fisheries News, published right here in Maine, and it’s filled with good news/bad news, depending upon the fishery.

Lobster prices go up and down, depending upon the season, the influx of Canadian lobsters, the dealers, processors, weather, water temperatures and a myriad of other factors over which the lobsterman has no control.

Scallopers frequently find themselves on limits. While a recent stock assessment showed a healthy biomass and near zero probability that the stock was overfished in 2013, here in Maine, where the season is scheduled to open Dec. 1, early closures are predicted. The Department of Marine Resources Advisory Council warns that fishermen can expect emergency measures “as we detect depletion of the resource beyond what can be regenerated in a season.’’

Meanwhile, shrimp fishermen are awaiting word on this season: Will there be one, or not? If the stocks indicate any fishery at all is possible, it will be a limited one. For years, shrimping was the savior of many fishermen, helping them make it through the winter.

While we’ll very likely never see a return to the “good old days” when giant bluefin tuna were landed at ports all along the New England coast in the summer, recent stock assessments apparently show that the western Atlantic bluefin numbers are improving. This is great news because the quotas will no doubt be increased. Tuna sold on the Japanese market can bring in some serious cash.

Great news in this month’s Commercial Fisheries News: Haddock stocks are healthy and growing. Haddock still shines as a favorite of New Englanders, but retail prices have forced many consumers to look the other way when selecting seafood to serve their family — not that they find many cheap options.

Probably the most devastating news in the current issue focuses on Gulf of Maine cod, termed “at the lowest level yet,” with predictions that it will only get worse.

It means there will be severe limits put on the fishery and cod fishermen are at odds as to who should set these quotas and to what extent landings should be limited. Here in our region, cod fishing has a long history, and has provided a livelihood for many day fishermen.

One Massachusetts boat captain who said he landed cod in record numbers in 2011 when the stocks were plentiful, asked “Where did they go?”

The answer he got from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center was, in a nutshell, that Maine’s warmer water temperatures are to blame, and the fish are either moving out of the Gulf, or dying.

Overall, fishing can make or break you, and in recent years, we haven’t seen too many fishermen with an over-abundance of money. Just keeping their head above water is a full-time job. It must be frustrating, not to mention expensive, to have to switch from one fishery to another when quotas dictate it.

In a special section on the codfish dilemma entitled “In their own words,” based on statements at the New England Council meeting covered by Commercial Fisheries News, Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives president Angela Sanfilippo sent a powerful message.

Criticizing the infrastructure of the industry, Sanfilippo notes it is “crumbling everywhere,” continuing “how can we hold on to this infrastructure when our boats cannot bring fish home?” She concludes, “We are the humans who have carried this industry for 400 years. So please, the system has to respond not just to the fish, but to the humans, too.”

If you have an interest in Maine’s fishing industry and have access to the November issue of Commercial Fisheries News, we strongly urge you to read the rest of Sanfilippo’s remarks and those of scores of other fishermen. It will give you great insight into the plight of fishermen all along the New England coast and that of the councils responsible for monitoring the various fisheries.