Introduction
Newfoundland and Labrador’s fisheries might start to be dated in a period not too distant from that Age of Discovery years, about five centuries ago, and since this period it had been performed an important role in both economic and socio-cultural structure of Atlantic Canada. Among several species, northern cods performed one of the main sources of food for both populations from Atlantic Canada and Eastern European countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, and principally England (Higgins, Lifestyle of Fishers, 1600-1900, 2008).
Over the years, as the world has evolved, fishing methods were improved as well, and, especially from the 20th century, several changes had forced the way the fishery was done in North Atlantic. As world population was increasing quickly, the cod demand has grown tremendously. New technologies were introduced and thus catch rates of northern cod began to exceed the hazardous limits of the stock’s ability to rebuild. This fact summed with another that will be shown below led to the cod collapse in the Atlantic Canada by the 90’s.
Main analysis
Cod stock analysis showed that until the 60’s fish landings had never surpassed 300 tons, however by this time more and more foreign fleets had been starting to arrive in the Northwest Atlantic area to catch cod. One reason of this heavily growth in the landings, according to Higgins (2009), was the fact that fishing technology rapidly evolved. The striking growth of factory-freezers trawlers, which could stay for months on the sea storing hundreds of tons of fish on-board, is an example of this fishing evolution. In 1968, an historical catch records that 810 tons of cod was landed, more than twice times the amount of early 60’s. Atlanti...
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Greenpeace. (2008, May 8). The collapse of the Canadian Newfoundland cod fishery. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from Greenpeace International Home: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/seafood/understanding-the-problem/overfishing-history/cod-fishery-canadian/
Higgins, J. (2009). Cod Moratorium. Retrieved June 16, 2014, from Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage: http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/moratorium.html
Higgins, J. (2008). Lifestyle of Fishers, 1600-1900. Retrieved June 14, 2014, from Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage: http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/fishers_lifestyle.html
Parliament of Canada. (n.d.). Northern Cod: a failure of Canadian fisheries management. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from Parliament of Canada: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=2144982&Mode=1&Parl=38&Ses=1&Language=E&File=21
The 1800’s the George’s Banks off the coast of New England was very generous to the fisherman who fished the sea for a living. There was a balance between what the fisherman took and what the sea could provide. By the mid-1900 that balances began greatly to shift. Technology developed during the 1950s allowed fishermen to take in much more fish than previous years. Through continued over fishing and lack of controls in place at the time, the fish stock depleted to the point the George’s Banks could no longer support the fisherman.
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The causes of the decline of fish as a sustainable food source come from multiple outlets. Humans and continued to grow and evolve. In our natural growth progression, we have continued to inhabited places outside of, previous boundaries, changing the landscape causing loss of habitats for a land and marine animals. Humans bring new species to areas that become invasive. We also have changed the dynamic of food ...
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