Canada has banned cod fishing in what was once the richest cod fishery
in the world, the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and Labrador. Fisheries minister
John Crosbie said it was the only way to save the stock.
Crosbie attributed the steep decline in cod since 1990 to 鈥榚cological
factors鈥�, including unusually cold water, which he said were affecting the
whole North Atlantic. But Canadian fisheries authorities admit that stock
in the eastern Arctic started increasing again when Soviet fishing declined
in 1990, pointing to overfishing as the culprit in the whole region.
Last week the Canadian Atlantic Fisheries Scientific Advisory Committee
reported that the tonnage of spawning cod on the Banks was 鈥榓mong the lowest
ever observed鈥�.
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