As we explore ways to sustainably manage the fisheries of these moving targets, we need to have a flexible and adaptable management system, especially in times of a rapidly changing climate that is altering marine ecosystems globally.Ĭhallenges for fisheries science and management Managing fisheries in ecosystems that undergo dramatic shifts in species dominance can be challenging - they are a moving target. The soaring snow crab and shrimp fisheries fetched as much as ten times the price of cod. Meanwhile, invertebrates such as snow crab and northern shrimp boomed. In the following years, cod and other groundfish were much slower to recover than expected. The northern cod collapse brought about a fishing moratorium in 1992, putting more than 30,000 Newfoundlanders out of work. In addition to prolonged overfishing, this decline has been attributed to the ecosystem's decreased productivity during a 15-year-long cold period in the Canadian Atlantic, resulting in less food availability for cod and other groundfish. But in the 1990s, the northern cod population here collapsed by more than 99 per cent along with other groundfish species.
In fact, much of the province's history and culture continues to be linked with this iconic species. Newfoundland's northern cod was once thought to be an inexhaustible resource. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
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