8/13/2023 0 Comments Atlantic cod![]() While the offshore fleet was still experiencing good catch rates, they were increasingly fishing a smaller area further south, indicative of a declining stock with declining geographical range. ![]() The inshore fishery experienced year-over-year declines in catch despite increasing levels of effort. If one looks back to the late 1980s and specifically at Northern Cod, the evidence was pretty clear and compelling. It has most often been-as a quick review of past and present decisions will show-a result of short-term socio-economic considerations trumping scientific evidence. However, the problem with fisheries management in Canada has rarely been a deficiency of policy, regulation or law. I would like to believe that the minister is right, and I would like to believe that our own hope for more evidence-based decision making will be the way of the future. When a modernized version of the Fisheries Act was passed two weeks ago, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard (DFO) himself stated that, had the measures included in the updated Fisheries Act been in law back in the late 1980s, the collapse of Northern Cod would have been avoided. But when looked at from the perspective of the past 27 years, not one event has had such a profound impact on rural Newfoundland and Labrador as the cod moratorium and the resulting loss of the fishery. ![]() It can’t compare to February 13, 1982, when the Ocean Ranger was lost with all 84 crew. It falls short by a good measure in comparison to July 1, 1916, when the soldiers of the First Newfoundland Regiment were slaughtered at the battle of Beaumont-Hamel. In the annals of Newfoundland and Labrador history, Jranks well up there as one of our darkest days.
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