The role of weak fisheries science in the northern cod stock collapse off Newfoundland and its usefulness in legitimizing federal government policy objectives

• Main Author: Chisholm, Judith
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2000
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/9631/; https://research.library.mun.ca/9631/1/Chisholm_Judith.pdf

The July 2, 1992 announcement of a cod moratorium signaled the end of a long history of the commercial cod fishery in Newfoundland. The burden of blame for the collapse of the Northern cod stock was placed on the fishery science division of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. This blame, however, was misplaced. This report analyzes how the inherent weakness in fisheries science and its subsequent strategic failures, facilitated the promotion of economic and political policies that led to overexploitation of the Northern cod resource. Further to this, the report examines the view that globally there is a common pattern of marine exploitation that inevitably leads to stock collapse. The Newfoundland fishery of the late 1990s adheres to such a pattern where the social and economic value of the resource subordinates the interests of science.