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Scientists warn of dwindling Nova Scotia cod stocks
By ALLISON DUNFIELD
Globe and Mail 14th January 2003
A group of Atlantic Canadian scientists warned the federal fisheries minister Tuesday that cod stocks off eastern Nova Scotia have fallen to dangerously low levels and that action to bring them up must be taken immediately.
"The Council's report recommends the continuation of tough conservation measures for many of the groundfish species in these areas," the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council said in its annual report on stocks off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The FRCC makes annual recommendations about catch limits and conservation to the federal minister.
In this year's report, released Tuesday, the FRCC says that the cod stocks in an eastern zone in Nova Scotia "may be in free-fall."
The council says it is unclear why the cod stocks are struggling despite a ban on a cod fishery since 1993 in the area off the eastern coast of Nova Scotia.
Fred Woodman, chairman of the council, wrote in a letter to federal Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault that "your immediate attention is required to ensure survival of this stock for future generations."
The stock, which a decade ago supported a fishery of 30,000 tonnes a year, has declined to the point that federal scientists now estimate the size of the spawning biomass off the eastern coast of Nova Scotia to be only 2,000 tonnes.
Mr. Woodman said cod levels in that same area appear to be "much, much less" than what they were when the fishery was closed in 1993.
The FRCC says that it has noticed improvements in cod stocks off the southeast coast of Newfoundland and in haddock populations off southwest Nova Scotia.
Mr. Woodman said one of the only "good news" stories is the success of cod stocks on the south coast of Newfoundland. It recommends that the federal fisheries department maintain current allowable catch levels for the 2003-2004 year.
The council won't deal with the issue of northern cod until March.
Mr. Woodman said more research is needed to determine why cod continues to decline off Nova Scotia despite the moratorium. He believes the region's exploding seal population is at least partly to blame. (Sable Island, a major breeding ground for grey seals in the North Atlantic, sits in that zone.)
"It's really, really frustrating and mystifying, but we think that seal predation is the major problem in areas where stocks are not recovering," he told Canadian Press. "In areas where they are recovering, like south of Newfoundland, we do not have a major seal problem."
The council also expressed concerns about the accuracy of stock assessments in southwestern Nova Scotia, where it believes dumping and misreporting of catches is a problem.
Meanwhile, Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault will decide in March whether he will shut down most of the cod-fishing grounds in Atlantic Canada. The move could could affect more than 15,000 fishermen and plant workers in Quebec and Newfoundland, provincial ministers have said.
With reports from Canadian Press
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