Politics vs. Science: The Troubling Future of Canada's Cod Fishery

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Canadian federal politicians are getting in the way of

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the cod fishery. It's not as if we haven't seen this before. In

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1992, the Canadian government had to declare a moratorium on

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cod fishing in Newfoundland and Labrador because

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of increased fishing pressures and not lowering the

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quota As the DFO, the Department of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences

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said, hey, you know what? We're starting to see a decline in the cod

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fishery population. We should do something about it. Politicians said,

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you know what? It's OK. Fishermen want to fish more.

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So we're going to continue to fish these cods as if nothing's ever happening.

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What happens? Boom, 1992, moratorium. And

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we haven't been able to fish the cod fishery since.

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Now, fast forward to 2016. The cod fishery started

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to come back just a little bit, not much, just a little bit.

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And then we started to notice that the population was stagnant in terms

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of growth. So what do we do? We start to

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make sure that the quota stays the same. We allow

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a very small quota number of fish, 15,000 tons per year

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allowed to be fished in Newfoundland and Labrador. But recently,

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as in this past spring, the fisheries unions

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and fisheries The fisheries unions and indigenous populations

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wanted to increase that

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quota so that they could

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fish more. And they want to increase it to 25,000 tons.

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It didn't go to 25,000 tons, but it did increase, causing

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DFO scientists to say, hey, you know what? I don't think

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this is a good idea. Paul just said, you know what? It's OK. No worries. We'll

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be fine. We'll just increase it to 18,000 tons. That's

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what we have to deal with as scientists. And we wonder why fishery scientists

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get so frustrated sometimes when politicians get in the way. Well,

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we're going to talk about why this is happening, why this continues to happen, and

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why it needs to stop on this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's

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start the show. Hey,

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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

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your host, Andrew Lewin. And this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,

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how you could speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean

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by taking action. And today's episode, it's a frustrating one.

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I'm going to be honest here, because this is something that we've seen before.

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I've explained this many times, but for those of you who are new, I'm going to

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explain it again. The cod fishery in

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the 60s, 70s, actually, it was how fishery, commercial fisheries

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were defined in Canada with cod all the way back

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to the, before the 1800s. As soon as people

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landed, I mean, people before that, indigenous people were fishing cod because

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it was plentiful. You could throw a bucket in the water and

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all of a sudden you get codfish filled in that bucket. fast

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forward to the 50s where you started to see an industrialization of

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fisheries uh fisheries gear and you started to see

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more and more fish get fished and then you started to see the population just

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go slowly decline until finally

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the government of canada had to declare a moratorium on

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the cod fishery well why did this happen why

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did we why didn't somebody why didn't somebody speak up we

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have these stock assessment scientists that are doing work they collect

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data every each and every year And they're allowed, they

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analyze it, and they say, hey, you know what? The population is doing really well. You

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can continue to fish at this quota. Or the population is not doing

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so well. We should consider lowering the quota. This

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is our advice. Well, you know what? It actually happened. The

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DFO scientists for a decade were saying

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that the cod fishing was slowly declining, and it was starting to get faster

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and steeper and steeper decline. But the politicians didn't listen. They

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just continued to set the quotas the same, or even increase some of the quotas at

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times, and then eventually what happens is there were no fish to

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fish, and it took longer to catch as many fish, and at

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one point you couldn't even catch any codfish. And so they declared

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a moratorium on The cod fishery, the government did, and

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we haven't been fishing cod that much ever since. Now,

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it doesn't mean we haven't been fishing cod. It doesn't mean you can't find Atlantic cod somewhere

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in Canada, because we still continue to fish in smaller doses

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and smaller quotas. And recently, there was a

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meeting by the Federal Fisheries Commission said,

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hey, you know what? We're going to have a meeting. We'll get all the stakeholders together. We'll get

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non-profit organizations, indigenous people over. We'll

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get commercial fishing over. And we'll get the government to come in and discuss. Let's

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discuss. Let's look at the data. Let's discuss what we need

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to do. And the government, the scientists

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said, hey, you know what? This is where we're at here. Since 2016, the population

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has not grown. Now, it's in a cautionary zone, meaning

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that it's not in a critical zone. I mean, it's still doing OK. But

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the population hasn't grown above the cautionary zone. and

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it's very close to dipping to the critical zone if we aren't careful.

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So if we're not careful, it's gonna dip into the

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critical zone. Remember that. So what do we do? DFO

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scientists say, you know what? We're a little concerned. So maybe we

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shouldn't increase the quota. We should keep the quota at 13,000 tons,

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the same level announced in 2022 and 2023. They also

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recommended that the minister of fisheries and ocean science

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maintain a stewardship fishery cod for cod, meaning a

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limited fishery practice solely by inshore harvesters, which basically mean

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indigenous and small commercial fishing. fishing,

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so basically artisanal fishing. So according

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to some of the news, certainly this option is based on the

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scientific advice, reads a briefing note.

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However, the minister, the minister Diane LeBoutier,

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ignored that advice of the staff within her own department.

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and said she'll reopen the commercial cod

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fishery off Newfoundland and Labrador in June. So

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she allowed, not only did she allow the fishery to start, but

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they allowed it to open it up to people beyond

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the, to the offshore commercial fishing, which can

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get dangerous because it's harder to monitor, it's harder

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to enforce that quota right and

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so the quota has actually increased to i believe

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it was so the according to the briefing note dfo presented

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two other options to the minister other than keeping it the same

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reopening a commercial fishery with a total allowable catch of 15 000 tons

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with quotas distributed solely among inshore and indigenous fish

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harvesters or reopening a commercial fishery with

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a total allowable catch of 18,000 tons, allowing the return

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of offshore vessels more than 100 feet long. Now we're

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talking about some big vessels here. So DFO staff

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warned, however, that both options presented a higher risk

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of northern cod stock returning to what the

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department considers the critical zone, And while DFO

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announced last year that after rejigging its stock assessment framework that

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Northern Cod has been in the cautious zone since 2016, population

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growth have stalled, may have stalled, worrying government scientists. So

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what was happening is they actually, since 2016, they're

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saying that the population was in the critical zone, but they rejigged and they added in

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more information. They said, you know what? It's actually in the cautious zone,

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which is one level higher. still not as the name

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says cautionary it's not in the zone where you're like hey

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we can go and we can go ham on these on these fish and we can uh

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we could have a lot of a lot of fish here so the briefing note

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indicates that the fed that the federal liberals newfoundland and

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labrador caucus composed of provincials the prevent provoke ah

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Sorry composed of the province's six liberals MPs will

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only support option three the 18,000 tons So

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not just keeping it the same not just reopening at 15,000 but at

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the 18,000 level so you should consider 20,000 which

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would be politically which would be a political victory for Newfoundland the

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document continues note that the NL caucus Newfoundland caucus is

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united on going ahead with a commercial fishery So

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they're going ahead now. What are they doing this for? What are they

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doing this for? They're not doing it for the cod. They're not

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doing it for the cod. Because DFO Science says, hey, you know what? We're still in

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the caution zone. We still have to be careful. Just because we're out of the

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critical zone, and we have been since 2016, doesn't mean that

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a larger fishery can happen. And so you're not doing

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it based on science, which is what the government should

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be doing. Now, yes, you have to consider other stakeholders at play here,

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but you're increasing it a little bit. and meeting in the middle, but

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not going all out and doing it at the 18,000 ton level.

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So in the end, though, on June 26, the minister

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announced the reopening of the commercial fishery and the total allowable

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catch of 18,000, the course of action supported by her liberal

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colleagues. She said, I did not, and I do not believe

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that DFO science would recommend the policy put forth by the minister. There

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is a long history with this and other Canadian fisheries

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of politics trumping science. And this is George

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Rose, a longtime fisheries-based scientist in British Columbia, who spent

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40 years studying cod. Our fisheries continue to suffer. And

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this is what happens. right, is you get politics that

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are injected into the system. And I get it,

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right. This is a human centric type of decision making process.

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You have stakeholders that come in, you have, you know, the commercial

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fisheries, you have inshore fisheries, you have indigenous fishers, you

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have nonprofit organizations that are representing the environment

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and representing protection of the actual fish and the fishery. And

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you get the government, And the politicians have to

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please the people, because if they want to get voted in, they want to get support for

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the next election, then they have to appease that at some point.

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Now, I'm sure they're going to say it's for different other reasons. They

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say, hey, you know what? We're actually out of the critical zone, and

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we actually have more fish available to us, so we should increase it.

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But science is very conservative. Because the

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reason why science is very conservative is because it just tells it how it is. And

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as a scientist, I I agree with

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what the department scientists are saying, the fisheries and ocean scientists

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are saying. We should be careful. There's really

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no reason to rush the increase in

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fisheries. What happens if you rush it and it happens too

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soon and you go back to the critical zone, it'll be really difficult to

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get back to normal. Just note that after the moratorium in

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1992, we are still not to the levels that we

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need in the future, like that we had back in the

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70s and 80s or even before that. That's

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how bad it is. That's where we're at right now. We are at

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a point where if we screw this

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up the second time, even though we know better, we

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are at a point right now where we're just like, this is our fault. It

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was our fault the first time, but this is even more on us because

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we can't make the proper decision. We rush things too much. And

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let's be honest, this fishery is sensitive. It's

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going to be sensitive. Now, not only are you bringing in an

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increase in the quota, but

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you're also bringing in offshore fishers, fishing vessels over

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a hundred feet. That's a lot. That's

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something that we have to really start

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to look at and say, is this really what we're coming to?

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Are we really at this point where we can start to include offshore fishers? I

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just don't think it is. I think we're screwing up here. And

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I'm a conservative person. Especially when it comes to listening

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to scientists, it's like you have to listen to science. I'm not one

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to take a lot of leaps of faith when it comes to

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this, when it comes to anything really. But it's something that I'm

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very cautious of. And it feels like, you know, sometimes

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it feels like the liberals are really, you know, for the environment. You

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know, when they first came into power in 2015, they

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started to bring back better marine protected areas, better

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protections. They brought fish habitat back into the Fisheries Act.

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They rejigged the Fisheries Act to be tougher. And

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they had all the dealings of what they wanted to come out as

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being more environmentally friendly. They had a climate change plan, even

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though it was not as aggressive as we wanted it to be. But

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they had something, right? The opposition, the conservatives

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didn't have anything like that. In fact, they were opposite of

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what was an environmental plan, right? They

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doubled down on fossil fuels. So like any plan at this point was

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good. But now it seems like even though they came out

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with the protections, they came out with the Fish Habitat and Better Fish Habitat and

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Better Fisheries Act, more marine protected areas

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than we've ever had, then all of a sudden, when it comes down

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to calling fisheries quotas and making sure that we're protecting the

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fishery and protecting the people as well, you have to remember that when,

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and for those of you who don't know, that when the moratorium came

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into place for cod, it

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changed Newfoundland. It

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changed Newfoundland like it's never been changed before. Because the big

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industry was fishing. Everybody had someone and

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knew someone who was a fisher. They would go out

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and they would catch cod, they would catch lobster, they would go out and catch fish.

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They would come back. But then it changed. It

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all changed in one day. Now it happened over time, but

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that one moratorium killed the fishery. And

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what happened, a lot of those fishers couldn't fish anymore and

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they had to go into another industry, the fossil fuel industry,

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the oil and gas industry, which they hated it to leave Newfoundland

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and go to, a lot of them had to leave Newfoundland and go to Alberta to work and

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they would go back and forth between Newfoundland and Alberta. They hated it. Many

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of the people hated it. They were taking

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from what they were supposed to be doing as a generational job. and

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practice, and they had to be taken out. And it wasn't necessarily

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their fault. Yes, they pushed and pushed and pushed. Like the unions pushed,

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the fisheries, commercial fisheries pushed, and the companies pushed, and

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the processors pushed. But the science wasn't saying

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the same thing. It was saying, no, we cannot do this. This is not what

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we would need to do. And then what happened? Boom,

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moratorium. Can't fish anymore. And

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now the fishery is starting to come back. You started to see people go back to fishing. And

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slowly coming back, creeping and creeping, because the population didn't

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rebound like we thought they did. Some people blame

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seals, right? Other people blame

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climate change, as it is, and it's probably a little bit of both. And

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then there's still, we were still fishing, you know, 13,000 tons per

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year in Newfoundland and Labrador. I don't know how long that was going on

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for, but at least since 2016. And now it's 18,000 tons

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and people want it to even push it even more. And it's opening

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up to offshore fishing. It's not just inshore, it's offshore fishing as well, which

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is harder to enforce. When you start to get to offshore fishing and

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bigger boats, it's harder to enforce. You can't get the boats all out there. It's

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really difficult. So now we're depending on a,

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on a, an industry that's already failed us in the past. And

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the government just seems to forget that. And it decides that,

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hey, you know what? We're going to help you with that. And we're going to help

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you fail faster by giving you what you want. And

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I don't know if the fishing groups feel like this and

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the indigenous groups feel like this is a compromise. And it's not what

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they want. They want 20,000 tons. But I feel

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like this is a failure on the scientists and on

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the conservationists, like the environmental groups, to get this done. It's

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a failure on the government to not put this into

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place, to not heed the warnings of

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the scientists, like they should have heeded it back in the 90s,

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in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. But

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it seems like we're doomed to repeat ourselves here in Canada. And

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this is the problem when it comes to fishery. We could have a sustainable fishery

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here, but we keep pushing and pushing and pushing until we're like, oh,

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no, we screwed up. Now we got to back up a little bit. And that would be fine if

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we could say, hey, you know what? We're going to increase it by 5,000 tons. We're

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going to open it up a little later and then we're going to monitor it. And we're going

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to use like adaptive management to like, hey, let's see what happened

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next year. And if we have to, we'll curtail it back just in case. But

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it's so hard to go back. It's easy to push forward.

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It's so hard to go back and reduce the amount. And

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now we're in another we're in that problem right now. We're in that situation. And

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it's frustrating. You can hear the frustration on it. And it's just, I

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don't even know what to say anymore. I'm very disappointed in this decision. I

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don't want to see this. You know, DFO scientists are great scientists. They've

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been doing this for decades. And we continue

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to ignore them. And we let politics win. Sometimes

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we just don't know what's good for us. And we just continue

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to go and make these bad decisions. And this is, I feel, is a bad decision.

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I hope it's not. I hope it's not. I want fishers to

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get their money. I want fishers to be able to do their thing. But

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I feel like this is not just about fishers, it's about companies getting

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involved, getting greedy, and that we know what happens when it comes down to that.

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And it disappoints me, really, really disappoints me. But

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I'd love to hear what you think. Do you think this is a good decision on the government? Do

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you think this is what we need? Do we need to push it a little bit, see

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what happens to the population? even though

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we're in the cautionary zone, we're not out of that cautionary zone

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yet, it's easy to go back to the critical zone, or do

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you think we just need to push it? Or do you think it's a bad decision and

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we need to come back on it? I would love to hear your opinions.

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If you go to Spotify and you watch this or listen to

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this, however you want to do it, You

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can go and you can answer a poll. Do you think this is a good decision by

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the government to open up this fisheries to more of

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a higher quota and to more fishers and open it up offshore? Or do

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you think this is a bad decision? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also, you can put

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your comments on the YouTube video that's going

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to be up on this. And of course, you can contact me on

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Instagram at howtoprotecttheocean. That's at how

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to protect the ocean. Just DM me. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And

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I want to thank you for joining me and continuing to support

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this podcast. If you know someone who's into fisheries or if

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you know someone who wants to know more about the ocean and you think this podcast would

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serve them well, please feel free to share it. I give you permission. It's

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free to share. It's free to say, hey, you know what? I was thinking about you, my friend. or

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my family member, and I think that you might benefit from

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knowing more about the ocean because you've been asking about it. So

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just hit them up. If they want to be a marine biologist, send them this. If

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they are a marine biologist, send this. I'd love to hear what they think. But that's it

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for today's episode. I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of

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the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and