PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – When the New England Fishery Management Council meets in Portsmouth this week, the sinking of a New Bedford, Mass., fishing boat in December that left five fishermen dead is certain to be a heated topic of discussion.

The NEFMC is an 18-member council charged with conserving and managing fishery resources off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The council meets to discuss, enact or change fishing regulations several times a year.

At the three-day board meeting that starts Tuesday, officials said they plan to review the findings of the U.S. Coast Guard on why the Northern Edge sank, leaving only one survivor. Some have argued that the council’s “broken-trip” regulation for scallopers played an indirect role in the event.

With the safety issues raised from the Northern Edge incident, Chris Kellogg, the council’s deputy executive director, said he expects the council to revoke the broken-trip rule for scallopers when it meets.

The rule places a reduction on the number of scallops a vessel can catch if the boat returns to shore in the middle of its trip because of weather or other factors.

For example, a scallop boat goes out to catch its allowed 18,000 pounds of fish. In the middle of the trip, there is a storm and the boat returns to port without its full catch. Once the weather clears, the boat is able to return to sea, but it is docked 3,000 pounds of fish from its total allowable catch.

The measure was enacted based on the argument that with vessels on simultaneous replacement trips, all with different possession limits, it would be difficult to monitor their activity and how much fish they were catching.

David Goethel, a Hampton fisherman and NEFMC board member, said with all the other restrictions placed on fishing, a 3,000-pound catch reduction can mean a lot to a fisherman.

“Either run for home and take a $16,000 penalty or stay there and maybe drown,” Goethel said. “Sometimes going home isn’t an option for people that are kind of desperate.”

In recent years the federal government and regional fishing councils have limited the number of days and areas where fishermen can go. The restrictions were put in place as part of a court-ordered mandate to help replenish certain fish species, which environmentalists argued were being overfished and at risk of extinction.

John Nelson, chief of Marine Fisheries for New Hampshire, said he understands where both fishermen and regulators are coming from.

“We always tried to balance the need for safety with the legislative mandate to restore the fisheries,” Nelson said.