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Canada puts end to Atlantic cod fishery
24th April 2003
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada put an end on Thursday to its once-proud Atlantic cod fishing industry, which collapsed 10 years ago after decades of over-fishing.
Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault said cod fishing will be banned in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Newfoundland and Labrador in order to protect the species.
Cod stocks -- once so plentiful that early explorers joked that you could walk on the backs of the teeming fish -- are now at historically low levels and show no signs of imminent recovery, despite a decade of drastic conservation measures and severely limited fishing, Thibault said.
"It is my responsibility to protect these important resources when they are in such obvious danger... and to take firm action to ensure this resource is preserved for future generations," he said in a press release.
Government reports show the commercial cod catch from these areas account only for 1.28 percent of the landed value of the entire Atlantic fishery, worth about C$1.8 billion ($1.2 billion) annually.
The landed value of cod has been steadily decreasing for years and is now worth only C$23 million, down from C$163 million in 1990.
The Atlantic fishery is a very sensitive issue in Canada, especially since Newfoundland's cod fishing and processing industry was all but shut down in 1992 in a bid to let vanishing stocks recover.
Some 40.000 fishermen and other industry workers were put out of work at that time and Thursday's closure will increase job losses in a region where unemployment levels are already high.
The news quickly sparked anger in Newfoundland where the province's minister of fisheries Yvonne Jones lashed out at Ottawa and said it showed a "blatant disregard" for the province, where the economy has relied heavily on the fishery for 500 years.
The president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, Earle McCurdy, called the shutdown a mistake and told CBC television that the "feds have turned their backs on us."
The decision will hurt about 900 licensed fishermen, and hundreds more who work in cod processing plants, in Newfoundland, Quebec and other Atlantic provinces.
Ottawa said it will invest C$44 million over two years to provide assistance to individuals and communities affected by the closure. But critics have already warned there won't be enough money, underlining the fact that the 1992 moratorium cost C$4 billion in aid programs.
Thibault said the government will also conduct scientific research into the serious decline of the cod stocks and assess the impact of seals are having on fish numbers.
Seals, which prey on cod and other species, are often blamed by fishermen for the continued low levels of fish stocks.
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