Spatial and temporal variability of inshore cod landings in Labrador and Eastern Newfoundland

• Main Author: Chen, Xiao Hong
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 1993
• Subjects: Newfoundland; The Landing
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/5530/; https://research.library.mun.ca/5530/1/Chen_XiaoHong.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/5530/3/Chen_XiaoHong.pdf

The Newfoundland northern cod inshore fishery has been of great importance to both the Newfoundland economy and thousands of inshore fishermen. This fishery is associated with both spatial and temporal variations in landings. Various studies have been conducted to examine the relationships between landings and biological and oceanographical factors. However, these studies analyzed the relationships at an annual scale. Temporal and spatial variations in landings within a fishing season and among different geographical areas have not been formally investigated. No attempt has been made to forecast inshore cod landings thus far. This study, using the 1974-1991 data, examined the spatial and temporal variability and the relationships between temperature and the landing patterns in the inshore trap and gillnet fisheries. Several parametric and nonparametric forecast models of inshore landings were constructed and tested. Area, year and week effects and their interaction effects on inshore landings were identified and examined using ANOVA. Annual variation of the weekly landing patterns was found to be significantly influenced by water temperature. Significant spatial variation in weekly landing patterns was also found, probably due to the spatial difference of water temperature. Based on the jackknifed prediction sums of squares, probability density function (PDF) forecast models were shown to have some utility in forecasting inshore landings, particularly with respect to the inshore gillnet fishery.