Summer Commercial Cod Fishery Should be Eliminated

Once again, Bob Verge has produced a very thought provocative article with his column Quantity Versus Value, Navigator Vol. 20. No. 10, October 2017.

When the time comes and it will, when Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are allowed to kill a cod for gain and sell it commercially, we have to do it like the Scandinavians. Maximizing value is the way to proceed.

I tell people it really does not matter how we catch cod in the summer months. This is only “hobby fishing.”

However, when we need and want to sell codfish for a sustainable profit, then we have to do it like the Scandinavian model. We have to follow their lead.

In my lifetime, I never again want to see a commercial fishery carried on in our warm weather/water months of mid-June to mid-September. Warm weather and water equates to soft fish flesh. It is impossible to produce a first quality product from soft fish. It just cannot be done.

R. David Moores
Bay Roberts, N.L.