Page 439 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

Central CaSe StUdy

Collapse of the Cod Fisheries

Newfoundland

“Either we have sustainable fisheries,
CANADA
or we have no fishery.”
— Canadian Fisheries Minister david
Maine
anderson
Gulf of
Maine Grand “So the human management side of
Banks this is critical. We don’t want to shoot
Georges
UNITED Bank ourselves in the foot as stocks begin
STATES to rebuild. We’ve got to nurse them
Massachusetts Atlantic
Ocean along.”
— George Rose, Centre for Fisheries ecosys-
tem Research, Memorial University

No fish has had more impact on human civilization than the the waters 200 nautical miles from shore, kicked out foreign
Atlantic cod. Europeans exploring the coasts of North America fleets, and claimed most of the Grand Banks for itself. Canada
500 years ago discovered that they could catch these abun- developed the same industrial technologies and revved up its
dant fish merely by dipping baskets over the railings of their fishing industry like never before.
ships. The race that ensued to harvest this resource helped
lead to the colonization of the New World. Starting in the early
1500s, schooners captured countless millions of cod, and the 200-mile
fishing limit
fish became a dietary staple in cultures on both sides of the (EEZ)
Atlantic.
Since then, cod fishing has been the economic engine for Closed to
fishing, 1992
hundreds of communities in coastal New England and east-
ern Canada. Massachusetts honored the fish by naming Cape QUEBEC LABRADOR
Cod after it and by erecting a carved wooden cod statue in its
statehouse. In many Canadian coastal villages, cod fishing has Closed to
been a way of life for generations. So it came as a shock when fishing, 1994 Grand
Banks
the cod all but disappeared, and governments had to step in
and close the fisheries. NEWFOUNDLAND
The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is a type of groundfish, a Canada
name given to fish that live or feed on the bottom. People have U.S.
long coveted groundfish such as halibut, pollack, haddock, MASSACHUSETTS
and flounder. Adult cod eat smaller fish and invertebrates, com- U.S. Canada NOVA SCOTIA
monly grow 60–70 cm long, and can live 20 years. A mature
female cod can produce several million eggs. Atlantic cod Georges
Bank
inhabit cool ocean waters on both sides of the North Atlantic Gulf
and occur in 24 discrete populations, called stocks. One stock of Maine Closed to ATLANTIC OCEAN
inhabits the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, and another lives fishing, 1994
on Georges Bank off Massachusetts (Figure 16.1). Figure 16.1 Populations of Atlantic cod inhabit areas of
The Grand Banks provided ample fish for centuries. With the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, including the Grand
advancing technology, however, ships became larger and Banks and Georges Bank, regions of shallow water that
more effective at finding fish. By the 1960s, massive industrial are especially productive for groundfish. Portions of these
trawlers from Europe were vacuuming up unprecedented num- and other areas have been closed to fishing in recent years
438 bers of groundfish. In 1977, Canada exercised its legal right to because cod populations have collapsed after being overfished.

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