Reasons Cited Include Low Fishing Levels, More Capelin
Amid all the worry and fighting surrounding the province’s declining shellfish fisheries over the past couple of years, the Northern cod stock has been quietly emerging from near annihilation and reclaiming its traditional ocean grounds and annual migration routes.
And while those with a stake in the fishing industry search for a way forward in a world with less crab and shrimp to share, some have been turning their gaze toward the Northern cod, hoping it can be the saviour for rural Newfoundland.
Fisheries scientists, however, say don’t look too hard at Northern cod just yet.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) 2016 stock status report points out that while the Northern cod stock has increased considerably over the past decade, it is nowhere near ready for an increased fishing effort.
“It’s a pretty optimistic story. The (Northern cod stock) has been going up in the last three or four years, but it still has a long way to go to where you can start to fish at a reasonable level,” said John Brattey, research scientist with DFO, Newfoundland region.
“If you fish too much you either slow up the growth or halt it.
“There’s pressure for more fishing in the next few years because people are seeing more cod and, with the decline in crab and shrimp, there’s a demand for more to replace income lost through lower crab and shrimp allocations.”
In 2010, a conservation limit reference point was established for Northern cod, defined as the average spawning stock biomass during the 1980s. The reference point helps set the boundaries between the various zones of stock growth.
In 2015, the spawning stock biomass was estimated to be 300,000 tonnes — that is 34 per cent of the limit reference point at which the stock would move from the critical (lowest zone) to the cautious zone.
“That’s about a third of the way up (in the critical zone),” Brattey said. “The DFO decision-making framework and precautionary approach says that when you are in this critical zone you have to keep fishing low to give the stock the opportunity to get out of this zone and into the cautious and healthy zones. I think that’s what has been going on. Fisheries (on Northern cod) are small. It is not having a huge impact. The management seems to be working and we are getting this growth.”
Brattey also noted that the improvement in the growth of the Northern cod stock coincides with growth in the capelin resource.
He said the amount of capelin seen in cod stomachs has been increasing, while the amount of shrimp has been going down. The result is healthier fish.
“The capelin is nowhere near what it was back in the 1980s, and neither is cod, but capelin did start to improve in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and it increased again from 2013-15,” he said. “Capelin is approximately at 20 per cent of pre-collapse levels. It still has a long way to go, but (the growth) makes a lot of sense as the cod stock requires a substantial prey base to feed on. It coincides in time very well.”
The report makes some recommendations for fishery managers, including beefing up monitoring of commercial and recreational fisheries on Northern cod to get a better handle on the amount taken.
The report states: “The relationship between reported landings and total deaths due to fishing from both the commercial and recreational fisheries is highly uncertain. There are no direct estimates of recreational landings for some years — 2006, 2008 and 2013 to 2015.”
The federal government, however, appears to already be acting on this recommendation.
On May 20, in announcing an extension of 14 days to this year’s Newfoundland and Labrador recreational cod fishery, Judy Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, said a licence and tags regime for all recreational fishery participants is expected to be introduced for the 2017 season.
Consultations on the new regime will be undertaken with the public and fishing industry.
Back when the recreational groundfish fishery first took place in the mid-1990s, it was limited to specific weekends and required participants to tag their fish caught. The use of tags was discontinued in the recreational fishery in later years.
Brattey said keeping commercial and recreational fishing at the current low level will allow growth to continue in the Northern cod stock.
“In the overall scheme of things, fishing is not actually removing a lot of the stock. (In the report) it says the fishery is removing about 1.4 per cent of the stock. The spawning stock biomass is 300,000 tonnes, so fishing is really removing a tiny portion of that, so it’s really not having a big impact,” he said. “And that fishing mortality is recreational and commercial fishing combined so, basically, the message is that fishing, as we hoped, is not removing very much of the stock and that’s part of the reason it’s growing so well because we are not taking too much out.”
Brattey said it is important now to show the world that Canada is managing the recovery of the Northern cod stock in a responsible manner.
That, he said, will help in obtaining Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of the Northern cod fishery in the future, and lead to new and better markets.
According to the MSC website, MSC certification is recognized as the world’s most credible and robust standard for sustainable fishing. The standard is founded on three principles: a healthy fish stock, protection of the surrounding marine ecosystem, and effective fishery management.
The fishing zone 3Ps cod fishery — off the south coast of Newfoundland — achieved MSC certification in March.
“I think we are under the spotlight of the rest of the world, both scientifically and politically,” Brattey said.
“People are looking at Northern cod because they remember what happened with the moratorium and so they are really looking at what decisions are being made here and whether they are wise or not, and that plays into the whole MSC issue and future marketing of the cod. That’s outside of the science domain, but it’s a key issue.”
