Government not off the hook for cod recovery plan: WWF

The most important consequence of listing cod under SARA would have been the obligation of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to produce a rigorous recovery plan within one year. DFO would also have been responsible to provide direction on how such a plan could have been made to work for cod and the people most affected. This includes rigorous planning and the latitude for reasonable measures to be put in place to deal with incidental catch, or possession of cod.

DFO recently released “A Strategy for the Recovery and Management of Cod Stocks in Newfoundland and Labrador”. While a commendable effort in many respects, the strategy does not meet the requirements of a recovery plan because it fails to set recovery targets and timelines and it ignores the internationally managed southern Grand Banks cod, which are at extremely low levels.

“For there to be any hope of rebuilding a healthy cod fishery, we must implement a recovery strategy that includes clear targets and timelines, such as reducing the amount of cod caught in other fisheries,” said Robert Rangeley, Atlantic Marine Program Director, WWF-Canada. “Not listing cod under SARA in no way lets the government off the hook for developing a plan for cod recovery.”

Confusion abounds regarding the population size of cod and the likelihood that the species or constituent stocks will go extinct. Reasons for this include considerable variation in the status among stocks and differences within stocks – for example, the inshore and offshore component of the northern cod. In addition, it is difficult for many fishermen to reconcile their direct observations of large numbers of cod in the water with a scientific assessment of extinction risk.

What cannot be disputed is that cod populations have declined precipitously – northern cod by 99% since the 1980s. There are virtually no signs of any broad-scale offshore recovery, despite fisheries closures of more than a decade. It is this historically unprecedented magnitude of decline in population sizes that qualifies these and other stocks for endangered or threatened status under any accepted criteria – Canadian or international.

WWF-Canada is calling on Canada and other governments to address fisheries crises like the cod collapse by: basing fisheries decisions on science – which includes ecosystem based and precautionary approaches; ban bottom-trawling and other harmful forms of fishing in sensitive areas; reduce bycatch; invest in better, more selective technology; and stop illegal fishing through enforcement both at sea and in ports.

“Rebuilding the cod fishery is one of the toughest problems imaginable in natural resource management,” continued Rangeley. “Unless there is a strong alternative plan, this decision not to list cod under SARA is a decision to continue on the same course of action – continued moratoria and no hope for the future of the fishery and the communities that rely on it.”