Canada ends cod moratorium in Newfoundland after more than 30 years
The Canadian government has ended the Newfoundland and Labrador cod moratorium, which gutted the Atlantic-coast province’s economy and transformed its small communities more than 30 years ago
ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland — The Canadian government has ended the Newfoundland and Labrador cod moratorium, which gutted the Atlantic coast province’s economy and transformed its small communities more than 30 years ago.
The Fisheries Department announced Wednesday it would reestablish a commercial cod fishery in the province, with a total allowable catch of 18,000 tons for the 2024 season.
“Ending the northern cod moratorium is a historic milestone for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians,” said federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier in a news release. “We will cautiously but optimistically build back this fishery with the prime beneficiaries being coastal and Indigenous communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.”
Ottawa announced the devastating cod moratorium on July 2, 1992. Cod stocks off the province’s northern and eastern coasts were collapsing, and the moratorium was introduced as a way to help them recover. Before then, the cod fishery was a primary economic driver in the province, and the moratorium put tens of thousands of people out of work.
John Crosbie, who was federal fisheries minister at the time, famously said, “I didn’t take the fish out of the goddamned water!” to a group of fishermen upset about the dwindling fish stocks. He announced the moratorium a day later.
With fish plants closing and jobs drying up, young people in rural Newfoundland and Labrador began to leave for St. John’s or mainland Canada to find work. Between 1991 and 2001, the province’s population fell by about 10%, largely because of
Read more on abcnews.go.com
