End of cod moratorium touted after 32 years as Ottawa approves small increase in commercial catch
Thirty-two years after the federal government announced a moratorium that shut down Newfoundland and Labrador’s cod industry, Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier said Wednesday that it is reopening.
But what the federal government described in a statement as the “historic return of the commercial northern cod fishery” will amount to just a small increase in fishing activity that had been allowed during the recent years of the moratorium.
“Ending the northern cod moratorium is a historic milestone for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians,” Lebouthillier said in a statement. “We will cautiously but optimistically build back this fishery with the prime beneficiaries being coastal and Indigenous communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.”
In October, a scientific assessment moved the northern cod stock from what was called “critical” to “cautious.”
DFO, however, also said the northern cod stock had not shown growth since 2016.
The total allowable catch, or TAC, this year will be 18,000 tonnes, with much of it directed to inshore fleets.
The TAC, though, is just slightly larger than last year’s 13,000 tonnes, which was managed by DFO — like many years of the moratorium — under strict conditions.
By comparison, the TAC in the pre-moratorium era was many times higher than it will be this year — for instance, the 250,000 allowable tonnes in the heavy fishing years of the late 1980s.
The Fisheries and Oceans announcement comes with political overtones.
While the federal Liberals hailed the end of the cod moratorium, the numbers present a more modest picture. This year, the total allowable catch (TAC) is 18,000 tonnes, an increase from last year’s 13,000. Liberal MP Ken McDonald insists the announcement was not one driven by politics or in the hopes of garnering votes come election time.
Much of the text consists of separate statements from all six of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Liberal MPs, and the announcement comes as the beleaguered Liberals fight against a rising Conservative party ahead of a looming federal election.
One of them, Avalon MP Ken McDonald, told CBC News the announcement was “definitely not” politically motivated.
“We’ve been talking about this in Ottawa for months and months and maybe a year ago,” said McDonald, adding the purpose is to help fishing communities. “So it had nothing to with the election, not that I’m aware of.”
Fisheries union leader Greg Pretty blasted the Liberal government for an announcement that he said “completely and utterly failed our province,” with a strategy that favours private companies over individual harvesters.
“Today is yet another blow in a long string of Liberal government failures to protect coastal communities while they prop up their corporate buddies,” Pretty, president of Fish, Food & Allied Workers-Unifor, said in a statement.
The FFAW claims most of the increase to the quota will be directed to offshore interests, despite the overall inshore focus. The union wants the Liberals to stick to a 1982 agreement that would see the first 115,000 tonnes of northern cod — an amount not announced in more than three decades — allocated to the inshore.
High stakes, low stocks
Jenn Thornhill Verma, author of Cod Collapse: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland’s Saltwater Cowboys, is cautious about describing the release as a historic announcement, and noted that — even with the moratorium in place — Ottawa has allowed a commercial cod fishery since 2006.
“It’s a moratorium, but it’s not really a moratorium,” Thornhill Verma told CBC News on Wednesday.
It’s steady as she goes for the northern cod stock. But while DFO’s latest science shows the stock has stabilized, it isn’t growing — and is expected to decline in the next few years, even if no fish are taken from the water.
Thornhill Verma said she doesn’t feel like the announcement reflects science.
“The science says all the Atlantic cod populations in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean remain historically low.”
She also says she’s skeptical of how substantial the fishery will be, compared with the heyday of the pre-moratorium fishery.
“This would be like, you know, you’ve been bankrupt for 30 years, you’re finally earning a little cash back and you’re going on a spending spree,” said Thornhill Verma.
The focus on the inshore fishery, however, is historic, she said. “They also want to make sure that they’re prioritizing Indigenous and coastal communities,” said Thornhill-Verma. “That should be celebrated.”
The Association of Seafood Producers, a St. John’s-based organization that represents seafood processors, said the announcement is “welcome news” for its members.
“The iconic cod fishery was once a mainstay and has been the backbone of our province,” executive director Jeff Loder said in a statement Wednesday.
Shutdown had dramatic effect on economy, population
In 1992, federal Fisheries Minister John Crosbie shut down the northern cod fishery — putting more than 20,000 people out of work in one of the largest industrial layoffs in Canadian history — as cod catches dwindled and harvesters were alarmed by the sight of smaller and smaller fish.
The moratorium triggered an economic crisis and contributed to a declining population in Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly in rural areas.
Earlier this year, seafood producers called for a modest hike in commercial activity in northern cod.
“We’re hoping now with more confidence in the stock we would see a reopening of a commercial cod fishery,” Alberto Wareham, president and CEO of Icewater Seafoods in Arnold’s Cove, told CBC News in April.
The federal government also recently announced the continuation of the recreational cod fishery, also known as the food fishery. That fishery will open this year on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays from June 29 through Sept. 2, and from Sept. 21-29.
Lebouthillier also announced the department intends to eliminate catch-and-release for tour boat operations in the recreational fishery and introduce tagging in 2025.
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