how the fishery collapsed - wordpress.com · 1875 1955 1977 1992 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200...

147

Cod461,000 tonnes (in 1988)

Redfish76,000 tonnes

Haddock30,000 tonnes

Flatfish59,000 tonnes

Halibut13,000 tonnes

Pollock43,000 tonnes

Others6,000 tonnes

Labrador

AtlanticOcean

GrandBanks

2J

3K

3LNewfoundland

Smallfishingboat

Trap

Shore

Fish luredinto trap net

Net

Trawler tows net which has twodoor-like otter boards that hold

the net open to trap fish

Towing cable Trawler

Otter boards

Labrador

AtlanticOcean

GrandBanks

Newfoundland

200 mile limit

Tail of the bankNose of the bank

How cod spawn and growMost eggs

float upwardsto surface

Older codspawning

Young codsettle to

bottom

Hatched larvaedrift in the direction

of current

Larvae at thesurface feed on

plankton

Number of men and womenemployed in Newfoundland’s

fishery sector in 1990

Men

Women

TotalSelf-employedfishermen

Wage-earningfishermen

Processingemployees

30,00025,00020,00015,00010,000

5,0000

Northern cod catch in the last 117 yearsThousand tonnes

Peak of foreign fishing

Foreigncatch

Canadian catch

Moderntrawlersintroduced

Canadianboundaryextended,1977

19551875 1977 1992

900800700600500400300200100

0

Milliontonnes

1.61.41.21.0

.8

.6

.4

.20

19621977

1992SOURCE: Federal and provincial fisheriesdepartments; Statistics Canada ALFRED ELICIERTO / TORONTO STAR

From the 16th century until the 1960s, cod were the backbone of the Atlantic fishery. In 1988,

cod represented two-thirds of the groundfish caught.

1The main type was northern cod. They swam in three fishing zones, known as 2J, 3K and 3L. For

centuries, fishermen were able to catch more than 200,000 tonnes a year of nothern cod in those zones.

2 Traditional fishermen used smaller boats with hooks and lines, or inshore traps

made of nets.

3

Trawlers use giant drag nets which sweep the ocean with deadly efficiency.

5

Cod spawn by releasing a cloud of eggs and sperm to the surface. Spawning only

occurs when cod are seven years or older. That is why a large stock of older cod is needed to maintain the fishery.

8

The recommended level of older cod is 1.2 million tonnes.

That amount of fish can sustain an annual harvest of 200,000 tonnes and still replenish itself.

9

After fishing of northern cod was banned in 1992,

an estimated 27,000 fishermen and fish-plant workers were left to idle. That is more than half the 44,000 people who were employed in the entireNewfoundland fishery in 1990.

12

Today, the northern cod remaining in 600,000

square miles of ocean would fill only 10 hockey rinks to the top of the boards. It is not clear when — or whether —

Newfoundland’s cod fishery will ever recover.

13Fishing quotas were

cut — but not deeply enough — as scientists warned of a fishery collapse. Today, cod stocks are less than 2% of the sustainable level.

11

Cod stocks fell below the sustainable level in the mid-1960s. Even so, Ottawa allowed

fishermen to catch as much as 250,000 tonnes a year of northern cod in the 1980s.

10

Canada’s fishing boundary was

extended in 1977 to 200 miles from 12 miles. For-eign trawlers withdrew to the nose and tail of the Grand Banks, but Canadi-ans continued to use their own huge trawlers.

7

The 1950s and 1960s saw an invasion of huge offshore trawlers. These were floating factories which processed the

catch on board. Many belonged to fishermen from foreign nations, such as Spain and Portugal.

4

How the fishery collapsed

6