Ottawa to reopen northern cod fishery in Newfoundland

The federal government has lifted a Northern cod moratorium off the north and east coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, ending a ban imposed in 1992 that devastated coastal communities and the regional economy.

In a statement Wednesday, federal fisheries minister Diane Lebouthillier announced conditions for a small commercial Northern cod fishery in an area collectively known as the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization divisions 2J3KL, which historically was one of the largest cod fisheries in the world before it was nearly wiped out by overfishing.

The 2J3KL commercial fishery will have a total allowable catch of 18,000 tonnes for the 2024 season, Ms. Lebouthillier said. The inshore fleet sector will receive about 84 per cent of that total catch, with 20 per cent of the inshore allocation going to harvesters in the 2J area, one of three that make up the 2J3KL divisions. Six per cent of the total allowable catch will be allocated to the Canadian offshore fleet, Ms. Lebouthillier said.

Openings for the commercial fishery are expected to be announced in July.

The change amounts to a small increase to a stewardship fishery that has been in place since 2006. The total allowable catch for that fishery in 2023 was 12,999 tonnes.

“Ending the Northern cod moratorium is a historic milestone for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians,” Ms. Lebouthillier said in the statement, adding, “we will cautiously but optimistically build back this fishery with the prime beneficiaries being coastal and Indigenous communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.”

DFO classes stock as healthy, cautious or critical. The stock had previously been in a critical zone for decades but revised assessments DFO released last year showed the fish moving out of the critical zone since around 2016.

The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) previously established a measure to allocate five per cent of the overall total allowable catch to to other NAFO contracting parties when Canada re-opens its commercial Northern cod fishery, the statement said, adding that the the Canadian total allowable catch of 18,000 tonnes is considered 95 per cent of the overall catch.

Ryan Cleary, an advocate for the inshore fisheries fleet and former NDP member of parliament, called the decision “foolhardy” because the changes open the door to potential threats from trawl fisheries.

“DFO’s way forward is to open the door once again to pulverize the stock,” Mr. Cleary said in an email.

Veteran fisheries scientist George Rose, contacted before the policy change was announced, said he was skeptical about the new assessment that puts Northern cod out of the critical zone because it is based on a lower reference point, the average stock biomass required for a stock to be considered healthy.

“Back in the old days, science considered the stock needed more than a million tonnes of spawning biomass to maintain productivity, then it came down to around 0.8 million, and now down to 0.3 million,” Dr. Rose said in an email.

“It’s like DFO is throwing in the towel on rebuilding this iconic stock and fishery.” he added.

He would have liked to see DFO maintain the moratorium and allow a small increase for the stewardship fishery.