PORTLAND – The federal government is dangling $10 million as bait as it asks fishermen to give up groundfishing permits they have not been using.

The buyout of inactive permits is an attempt to keep the New England fishing fleet from growing again and undoing years of painful conservation rules as stocks of cod, haddock and other groundfish begin to recover.

This is the second buyout of its kind in the region.

From 1996 to 1998, a $25 million federal program eliminated 79 of the most proficient vessels from the fleet.