What went wrong and what can we learn from it? NOEL ROY Memorial University The recent closure of the Northwest Atlantic cod and other groundfish stocks off the east coast of Canada has prompted calls from several quarters for a reconsideration of our understanding of fisheries stock dynamics. It is...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.571.9579 http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~noelroy/CALGARY.pdf |
| Summary: | What went wrong and what can we learn from it? NOEL ROY Memorial University The recent closure of the Northwest Atlantic cod and other groundfish stocks off the east coast of Canada has prompted calls from several quarters for a reconsideration of our understanding of fisheries stock dynamics. It is disturbing to acknowledge that in 1979, immediately after Canada had declared Extended Fisheries Jurisdiction off its shores, the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of northern cod (2J3KL Cod) had been expected to rise to 402,000 tonnes by 1985 (Department of Fisheries and Oceans 1981). This outcome was expected to result from the rebuilding of the stock from the depleted state to which it had been reduced as a result of the actions of distant-water fleets over the previous two decades. In fact, the TAC for this stock never rose above 266,000 tonnes, and beginning in 1989 the TAC was progressively reduced until the directed fishery was effectively closed in mid-1992. Subsequently, seven other cod stocks, and several flatfish and redfish stocks in the Northwest Atlantic have also been closed. This outcome would have had no credibility, even as a worst-case scenario, even 2 a few years ago. Indeed, the East Coast fishery was the subject of numerous studies in this period immediately after the establishment of Extended Fisheries |
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