Close the commercial cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador

Last week, the Canadian government announced the re-opening of the northern cod commercial fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador, ending a 32-year moratorium and introducing a new era for Canada’s most iconic fishery. The decision was celebrated by politicians across the country, especially federal MPs from the province, with leaders hailing it as historic, powerful, and sustainable. There is just one problem. The vast majority of harvesters and plant workers—the men and women who rely on the fishery for their livelihood—oppose the decision. By reopening the commercial fishery, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has given access to industrial offshore trawlers, which have devastating impacts on the health of the resource. Prior to the collapse of northern cod and the moratorium in the early 1990s, inshore fish harvesters were already sounding the alarm on the stock's health. In 1986, the Newfoundland Inshore Fisheries Association commissioned a report to examine DFO’s estimate of northern cod stock status, observing that inshore catch rates—the number or weight of fish caught per unit of effort—were declining despite DFO’s claim that the stock was healthy, and not subject to overfishing. The offshore fleet objected, arguing that their catch rates remained high, and that there was no need for alarm. Just six years later, DFO declared that the stock had “collapsed,” resulting in the largest single-day layoff in Canadian history. Abe Solberg is the Policy and Negotiation Lead and a Fisheries Scientist with the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union. Photograph courtesy of FFAW-Unifor Fisheries scientists describe phenomena where catch rates remain high despite a shrinking stock as hyperstability or hyperaggregation. Fish stocks in poor health often aggregate, shrinking their spatial range, making it easy for industrial trawlers to target and devastate a stock. The term was coined following the northern cod collapse. Today, offshore trawlers have a far greater capacity to wreak havoc on a stock compared to the late 1980s. Advances in technology allow trawlers to target fish stocks with high precision, and land more of them in a shorter period. If this technology targets a group of spawning cod, the effects could be devastating, particularly considering its current status. While an update to the northern cod assessment model shows that the stock size is now roughly comparable to where it was in the 1970s, it is nowhere near the highs reached in the 1980s. The decision to open the northern cod fishery to these industrial vessels is unnecessary and reckless considering the current status of the stock. The goal of fisheries management is to ensure the long-term viability of both fish stocks and fish harvesters. Managers must limit the probability of overfishing while still providing for a reasonable harvest. Overfishing is a function of the number of harvesters or enterprises, the capacity of those harvesters, and the exploited stock size. Increasing capacity has a far greater impact than increasing the number of harvesters. A 10 per cent boost in the technological capacity of a fleet is equivalent to doubling the fleet's size at its current capacity. The offshore trawlers now given access to northern cod have a staggering capacity to remove fish biomass. Allowing them back into the fishery greatly increases the probability of overfishing, and threatens the stock's health. Furthermore, one of the key tenets of fisheries management today is that harvesters with a stake in the stock's future viability will be more likely to promote and protect it. Economic and conservation objectives—that is, the long-term health of the stock—are inherently linked for fish harvesters, motivating them to act as stewards, and to create more sustainable fisheries. Inshore harvesters know this intimately, as harvesters, plant workers, and their communities are still recovering from the moratorium's impacts. Since 2005, there has been a stewardship fishery for northern cod that has allowed inshore harvesters to manage a small, sustainable fishery using non-destructive gear types. Under this fishery, the northern cod stock grew from a historical low level to an increase of almost 500,000 tonnes. History tells us that allowing offshore trawlers to target the stock has potentially disastrous effects. For the long-term health of the cod stock and the people who rely on it, the Government of Canada must immediately reverse this decision and re-implement a stewardship fishery. Abe Solberg is the policy and negotiation lead and a fisheries scientist with the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW-Unifor). Prior to this role, Solberg worked as the spatial analyst for the FFAW-Unifor. He is currently completing his PhD at the Centre for Fisheries and Ecosystem Research at the Marine Institute of Memorial University. The Hill Times

Close the commercial cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador

By reopening the commercial fishery, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has given access to industrial offshore trawlers, which have devastating impacts on the health of the resource.

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Close the commercial cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador

By reopening the commercial fishery, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has given access to industrial offshore trawlers, which have devastating impacts on the health of the resource.

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