When northern cod was king

Thirty years after the moratorium, we need to take a ‘back to the future’ approach to managing the fishery

As the 30-year anniversary of the July 2, 1992 moratorium on northern cod approaches, I began to reflect on that sad day when the fishery was shut down and on what might have been if the fishery had been better managed for the long-term sustainability of the stock instead of for shortterm political gain and economic expediency.

The socioeconomic consequences of the closure of what was once the largest cod fishery in the world were staggering: 30,000 to 40,000 jobs vanished overnight. “Cod” is synonymous with “fish” in Newfoundland and Labrador and an integral part of its cultural identity. Despite the obvious shock and devastating consequences of the announcement at the time, some inshore harvesters had observed signs of localized fish declines through the 1980s following Canada’s declaration of a 200-mile territorial limit in 1977.

NORTHERN COD’S BACK STORY

A short history of this fishery for context: catches of 100,000 to 200,000 metric tonnes per year of northern cod were proven sustainable for several centuries since the early 16th century. These catches were obtained largely by the relatively low-tech method of hand-lining using single hooks baited with caplin, herring or squid, or jigged using unbaited hooks (lures). This “one hook-one fish” approach to fishing during all those years, both offshore (mainly by the French, Spanish Basque and Portuguese White Fleet fisheries) and nearshore (by the English merchant fishery) was carried out with no catch restrictions.

In contrast, the northern cod stock under quota management regimes (by the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic/ Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization outside territorial limits, and by DFO within Canadian waters) was severely overfished up until the moratorium, first by foreign factory freezer trawlers in the 1950s and later by domestic wet fish trawlers (post 1977) operating in offshore areas using otter trawl gears. The bulk of the cod caught by these draggers was made up of pre-spawning and spawning fish captured in the far north off Labrador during the winter. While directed fishing for northern cod using mobile gear has been banned since the moratorium, cod is still being taken by trawlers as bycatch in other offshore groundfish fisheries. Northern cod remains a targeted species in inshore areas as part of a small commercial fishery referred to as the stewardship fishery and in recreational fisheries (largely unmonitored), with the majority of fish caught by gillnets.

SIGNS OF TROUBLE

At the time of the 200-mile limit, the federal government claimed that sustainable yields of over 500,000 metric tonnes (well above proven levels) could be achieved with good fisheries management. That’s all it took for government bureaucrats and politicians at all levels, local and regional business interests and organized labour leaders to enthusiastically support the expansion of existing fish plants and the construction of new ones and a new fleet of otter trawlers capable of matching the expanded fish plant capacity.

However, ominous signs of trouble were on the horizon:

•declines in mean size, age at maturity, abundance in many nearshore areas •high catches but poor quality and therefore low landed value of winter-caught offshore pre-spawning and spawning cod

•development of an industrial nearshore fishery for female caplin, the principal food source and possible cue for northern cod’s seasonal migration from offshore spawning to inshore feeding areas

•high variability in stock assessment results between government and non-governmental scientists due to different interpretations of the relative importance of natural mortality versus fishing mortality

•under-reporting of catches in the commercial and recreational fisheries

•inherent biases in research sampling methodologies

•focus on single-stock rather than ecological-based resource assessments

•political interference in the quota management process (final determination of total allowable catches and the allocation of quotas).

MANAGEMENT MODEL

Shortly after the moratorium was instituted, I co-authored an essay in a well-known fisheries scientific journal which offered an alternative framework for managing Atlantic groundfish stocks modelled after Atlantic lobster fisheries, which are among the best managed fisheries in the world. The recommendations were well-received in some government circles but not so much by DFO bureaucrats because of the reduced role foreseen for a centralized fisheries management authority.

Our main recommendation was to replace the current ineffective quota system with one based on control of fishing effort (fishing gear restrictions but no limits on total catch). To accomplish this, we advocated for the use of selective fishing gear types and methods for groundfish which would minimize the bycatch of other species, allow for the escape of immature juvenile stages and would not harm fish or fish habitat.

As such, the current ban on the use of bottom otter trawls for the northern cod fishery should be made permanent and even extended to all groundfish fisheries given bycatch issues and the destructive nature of this gear. The vessels do not necessarily need to be withdrawn from offshore fishing; they could be reconfigured to fish with benign gear types such as cod with bottom longlines, shrimp with mid-water trawls and snow crab with traps. These fisheries should be just as sustainable under an effort management system (no quotas) as the traditional handline fisheries for cod and commercial fisheries for lobster. Shrimp are lower in the food chain and therefore have a faster generational turnover cycle than most other commercial species. Female snow crabs are not harvested in the commercial fishery, which should virtually ensure the long-term reproductive success of stocks.

Serious consideration should also be given to banning other types of mobile and fixed gear. Encircling gears such as purse seines have decimated many pelagic stocks, including herring, mackerel and caplin in parts of Atlantic Canada. The gill net has issues with product quality, entanglement of marine mammals and ghost fishing if lost. Even the traditional Newfoundland fish trap, a type of fixed gear, is problematic because it typically catches large quantities of small fish (mostly immature) in a short time during the summer, which then often need to be transported long distances from remote sites, leading to low processing yields and quality issues.

TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES

The most selective and environmentally friendly fishing techniques are the traditional non-bottom contact methods such as hand-line, jig and troll, which have yielded sustainable catches over several centuries of fishing in nearshore areas and offshore. While these methods may not be as efficient from a volume point of view, they yield higher quality fish which fetches a premium price, have minimal bycatch and do not impact the seafloor ecosystem. The prime example of this strategy working is the community-owned Fogo Fish Co-operative, which has taken a value-added approach to fisheries — accepting only hand-lined cod for processing and direct sale to high-end restaurants.

This carrot and stick approach, where only harvesters using selective fishing gears are rewarded with unfettered access to cod and lucrative shellfish fisheries, while others are displaced, may seem heavy-handed. But the removal of gluttonous trawlers from the fishery virtually guarantees that northern cod and other groundfish species will never be overfished again and that the seabed ecosystem will stabilize and perhaps even have a chance to restore itself. Two sayings come to mind: “Desperate times call for desperate measures” and “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

With the northern cod stock still critically low, the question remains the same after 30 years: will the northern cod stock ever come back?

It has a chance to recover if fisheries managers are willing to learn lessons from the long history of this fishery and try something different. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador are tired of waiting.

Geoffrey V. Hurley is retired in Dartmouth, N.S. with over 40 years’ experience as a research biologist with the federal government, as a senior executive with the commercial fishing and offshore energy sectors and as an independent consultant. He has authored or co-authored over 100 technical/ scientific publications. Email: hurleyenvironment@gmail.com