The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans recently cut Nova Scotia’s cod quota in half.
DFO said the cod stock remains in poor shape on the Scotian shelf from Halifax to Digby, leading to the decision to spread the annual 1,600-tonne quota over two years instead of one.
Scientists found this year’s catch brought in fewer younger fish.
“If they do grow, they hit age four or five and they seem to disappear. In our surveys at age five or six, they are practically non-existent,” a DFO scientist was reported as saying.
But just as Nova Scotia cod stocks are showing little improvement, the same can’t be said about the fishery prospects on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Guardian newspaper recently reported that North Sea cod stocks are improving rapidly and could be certified as sustainable within five years, according to a recent analysis.
The fish, once one of the most disastrous examples of overfishing, is now closer to being certified as sustainable than gurnard, a species which consumers have previously been encouraged to eat instead of cod.
Cod was heavily overfished in the North Sea in the 1980s and 1990s but since 2006, with stringent regulations imposed on the industry, has shown a steady recovery and is approaching the level of maximum sustainable yield, the measurement widely accepted as the gold standard of responsible fishing.
Gurnards were recommended by green groups and celebrity chefs as a sustainable alternative to overfished species but there are concerns about them because of a lack of data on their numbers and an absence of controls on catching them, the UK-based newspaper explained.
