After being fished to the brink of extinction, the once abundant (and delicious) cod is coming back due to smart management of the fisheries. But that doesn't mean the species will ever be the same.
For 500 years, the waters off Canada's Newfoundland were among richest fishing grounds in the world. In just a matter of decades, though, the arrival of modern trawlers to the Grand Banks in the 1950s led to a marine desert by 1992. Catches of cod peaked in 1968 at 800,000 tons, plunged to 34,000 tons by 1974. They plunged even farther--to zero--less than 20 years later, when the fishery was closed indefinitely for lack of fish. Cod stocks in the area remained at less than 5% of their former level (in terms of biomass) for decades despite the moratorium.
Today, the Grand Banks is a defining example of fishery collapse and mismanagement. But Canadian researchers publishing in the journal Nature, have found evidence...
For 500 years, the waters off Canada's Newfoundland were among richest fishing grounds in the world. In just a matter of decades, though, the arrival of modern trawlers to the Grand Banks in the 1950s led to a marine desert by 1992. Catches of cod peaked in 1968 at 800,000 tons, plunged to 34,000 tons by 1974. They plunged even farther--to zero--less than 20 years later, when the fishery was closed indefinitely for lack of fish. Cod stocks in the area remained at less than 5% of their former level (in terms of biomass) for decades despite the moratorium.
Today, the Grand Banks is a defining example of fishery collapse and mismanagement. But Canadian researchers publishing in the journal Nature, have found evidence...
- 8/8/2011
- by Michael J. Coren
- Fast Company
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