Canada ended a 30-year moratorium on Northern cod fishing off the north and east coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador in July, following news last fall that stocks had moved from “critical” to “cautious.”
The government’s announcement said the 2024 season would have a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of 18,000 Canadian tons–5,000 above the previous year. Of that, 6.66% is allocated to indigenous populations. The department also plans to eliminate catch and release fishing for tour boat operations in the recreational groundfish fishery, and introduce a tagging regime starting in 2025.
Before 1950, northern cod yielded an annual production of some 250,000 tons, growing to 800,000 tons by 1968, largely because of new fishing technologies. But then both yields and size of the cod declined rapidly.
The northern cod fishery was the single most important fishery on Canada’s East Coast before the moratorium was put in place. It represented 46% of total available cod quotas and 21% of all groundfish quotas. In 1991, when the TAC was at its lowest in a decade, the fishery still infused over $700 million into the Canadian economy, and supported directly and indirectly some 31,000 jobs in the region, 90% of which were based in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Though some people celebrate the lifting of the ban, others have concern that cod stocks could easily fall back into the critical zone, not least because the food the cod rely on, capelin, has not recovered since the 1990s.
Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard announced the end of the moratorium saying “Ending the Northern cod moratorium is a historic milestone for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. It’s through working together that we have reached this moment. We will cautiously but optimistically build back this fishery with the prime beneficiaries being coastal and Indigenous communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. As a government, we remain steadfast in our commitment to fostering sustainable and economically prosperous fisheries that honour our shared resources for generations to come.”
