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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