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The Cod Moratorium
[edit]The Cod Moratorium was an event that disrupted the life of many Newfoundlanders. It occurred on the 2nd of July in 1992. There would be thousands of Newfoundlanders finding themselves without a job whether on the boats or in the processing plants after the decision to implement the moratorium was made by the fisheries minister at the current time John C. Crosbie.[1]
When the 20th century began it brought with it the usage of fossil fueled fishing vessels, mainly trawlers which were the large fishing vessels that depleted the majority of what was the cod stocks in Newfoundland. There were several factors that had been blamed to have caused the severe decline of the cod stocks such as declining reproduction and natural causes and the government attempted to downplay their role in the overfishing of the stock.[2]
Prior to 1977 any vessel could fish off the shores of Newfoundland, but then the United Nations Law of Sea Convention set in place a 200 mile zone around many different countries one of which was Canada and this included the province of Newfoundland.[3] Having this new law in place protected more of the stocks from foreign vessels however, this is when Canada decided to up the number of Canadian fishing vessels. This didn’t aid the problem whatsoever and just maintained the decreasing trend on the cod stock until it was almost non-existent and they put the cod moratorium in place in 1992.
Although the tragedy of the commons model highlights that when power is put in the hands of the public and they can take as much as they want of a natural resource it would ultimately deplete the resource to be non-existent,[3] the occurrence of the disappearance of the cod stocks would be largely tied to mismanagement by the government. The Fisheries and Oceans department of Canada (DFO) that controlled all facets of the cod fishery like the number of licenses, quotas, and the different vessels allowed would be largely to blame for the catastrophe that is the cod moratorium.[3]
This event had a grave effect on the economy and resources of the province and as mentioned on the Canadian Encyclopedia website would cause the province of Newfoundland's population to drop by over ten percent throughout the following decade.[4]
Further Reading
[edit]Recruitment overfishing
[edit]The cod moratorium that was originally stated to last two years which has well been exceeded going on three decades later.[5] Since the early 1990’s the northern cod spawning biomass has been heavily depleted by an estimated 93% in the last 30 years.[6] The root cause for the necessity of the moratorium to be put in place in Newfoundland would be due to the recruitment overfishing. This is when the annual regeneration of the exploitable stock becomes drastically reduced. This is seen when a year's catch comes in with much higher quantities of spawn stock and a decreasing quantity of mature old breeding stock year after year.[7] This is the type of overfishing that would have led to the demise of the Newfoundland cod fishery and the disappearance of what was once a bountiful resource on the island.
How to mitigate/reverse overfishing
[edit]Monitorization:
[edit]This would be one of the control methods that could be implemented to help with the return of the cod stock off the shores of Newfoundland. Monitorization would be used in the sense that fisherman's quotas would decrease both in the fishing industry as well as within the recreational fishery of the population of the island.[8] The use of this method would constrain the quantity of resources able to be taken from the ocean. This would then result in the overall catch amount dropping and help the stock return to previous years where the resource was much more bountiful within the province.
Refuge:
[edit]This would be another method for increasing the cod population in the North Atlantic. The way this approach would mitigate the occurrence of overfishing would be to limit the area in which Canadian trawlers would have access to fish. The approach for this method would be to close off popular areas which cod tend to migrate and this would give them an opportunity to spawn, grow, and the population the opportunity to thrive[8] off the coast of Newfoundland again. This would also allow the mature female cod a greater chance to breed as they are highly productive and can lay an exponentially larger quantity of eggs as opposed to the immature cod.[9] It is known that cod are migratory animals that tend to use the same paths year after year, if these zones were considered safe areas off limits it would ensure that cod population would be capable of reaching a mature age and reproducing to bring up the stocks of the province. When cod finish the spawning period they spread out and are then joined by immature fish who can become accustomed to the same migratory patterns and join the school allowing them to reach an age of maturity and help increase stock numbers.[10]
Reliance:
[edit]Becoming less reliant on a fish based industry in this province would also be beneficial to both the cod stocks and the economy of Newfoundland. To reserve on the quantity of fish eaten by the population of the island if people converted to a lifestyle circled around products such as farming for vegetables and substituting protein from fish to sources like eggs, beans, and milk. This would decrease the quantity that is necessary to be caught for the people of the province and help us conserve our resource and allow it to recoup to a more prosperous resource. If the government of Canada puts more time into effective managing the resource it would become more sustainable.[11] The government could then fund more industries like agriculture and farming within the province of Newfoundland, this would create more jobs and replace the nearly 30000 that were lost when the moratorium occurred.[4]
Stricter regulations:
[edit]A method that could be imposed upon the province to alleviate the problems with the suffering population of cod. Although it would be unpopular with the people of the province if you imposed a licensing system similar to that of those interested in hunting big game, where they would do a draw for licenses.[12] This would be a definite way to control the amount of cod taken out of the water. This could be done on both a level of recreational fishing as well as enforcing a smaller catch for trawlers.
Resources
[edit]- ^ Schrank, Wiliiam E.; Roy, Noel (2013, December). Marine Resource Economics (Volume 28, Number 4 ed.). MRE Foundation, Inc. p. 397.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ "The cod delusion". canadiangeographic.ca. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ a b c Mason, Fred (2002). "The Newfoundland Cod Stock Collapse: A Review and Analysis of Social Factors" (PDF). Electronic Green Journal, 1(17): 1–8.
- ^ a b "Cod Moratorium of 1992". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "Cod moratorium: How Newfoundland's cod industry disappeared overnight". canadiangeographic.ca. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "Cod Moratorium in Newfoundland and Labrador". www.heritage.nf.ca. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "Recruitment overfishing". International Seafood Sustainability Foundation. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ a b Morris, Ashira (2020-03-11). "Five Actions to Save Atlantic Cod". Conservation Law Foundation. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "Hinterland Who's Who - Atlantic Cod". www.hww.ca. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "COD MIGRATION". epe.lac-bac.gc.ca. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "The world could eat more fish if we try to catch less". Australia & New Zealand - English. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ^ "Big Game Licence Application and Draw Process". www.gov.nl.ca/hunting-trapping-guide. 2023, January. Retrieved 2024, April 18.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|access-date=and|date=(help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)