According to a study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences a major population of Atlantic cod will be gone within decades, even if fishing is halted completely. The study was carried out by biologists Douglas Swain and Ghislain Chouinard of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). They said that the cod stock in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, once the largest in the world, will be extirpated – essentially extinct – within 20 years, even with the limited 2,000-tonne quota set earlier this year.
Scientists said that even if there is total ban on fishing, the cod will still be gone in less than 40 years. Fisheries biologist Jeffrey Hutchings of Dalhousie University in Halifax, said that the outlook is pretty bleak. He added that no cod stock in the world will have declined by this amount should this prediction be realized. It would be unprecedented. The southern Gulf stock, like others in Atlantic Canada, collapsed in the early 1990s. It has failed to recover despite years of limited fishing.
According to the study there is higher death rate of adult cod because the rate appears to be increasing the projections are likely overly optimistic. Swain and Chouinard also found the cod is maturing faster and spawning at an earlier age, which leads to higher mortality. It is told that the scientists clearly indicated that if (Hearn) was to have a 2,000-tonne fishery this year, that it would accelerate the decline of cod and increase the risk of extirpation over a 20-year period. And that quota went ahead anyway.
