Newfoundland Cod

CASE STUDY: Newfoundland and its cod

In 1992 the Canadian Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans declared a total ban on the Northern Cod fishery, which for the preceding 500 years had largely shaped the lives and communities of Canada's eastern coast. This was prompted by the Northern Cod biomass falling to just 1% of earlier levels because of overfishing and the consequent nutrient deprivation in the system causing starvation of the residual fish.

Factor that contributed to this were:

·         Technological advances: sonar allows fish that may have escaped detection to be caught, navigation allows them to go deeper and freezers allow boats to stay out longer.

·         Environmental ignorance:  an imperfect understanding of the ocean ecosystem and challenges associated with observation…