Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Canada is continuing to overfish critically depleted populations. Find out more at fisheryaudit.ca .
For five hundred years, Newfoundland and Labrador's northern cod supported a lucrative, sustainable fishery. With the right management, it could again. However, nearly three decades after the stock collapsed, DFO has still not completed a rebuilding plan, leaving northern cod without safe harvesting limits or a clear path back to healthy levels. This has made critically depleted fish even more vulnerable. In 2019, northern cod showed a slight increase in biomass of four per cent. DFO responded by increasing the quota to 12,350 tonnes — a jump of 30 per cent — contrary to scientific advice and the government’s own policy. This year, DFO maintained the same dangerously high catch level set the year before, on a stock supposedly under moratorium to commercial fishing.
Canada is continuing to overfish critically depleted populations. Find out more at fisheryaudit.ca .
For five hundred years, Newfoundland and Labrador's northern cod supported a lucrative, sustainable fishery. With the right management, it could again. However, nearly three decades after the stock collapsed, DFO has still not completed a rebuilding plan, leaving northern cod without safe harvesting limits or a clear path back to healthy levels. This has made critically depleted fish even more vulnerable. In 2019, northern cod showed a slight increase in biomass of four per cent. DFO responded by increasing the quota to 12,350 tonnes — a jump of 30 per cent — contrary to scientific advice and the government’s own policy. This year, DFO maintained the same dangerously high catch level set the year before, on a stock supposedly under moratorium to commercial fishing.
