East Coast cod stocks show steep decline

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Northern cod stocks off Newfoundland suffered a steep decline over the past year, with Fisheries officials finding the species has a lower survival rate and will likely continue to decease in the coming year.

The bleak findings were part of a report that said the stock dropped 30 per cent over the past year in the fishing area known as 2J3KL that stretches from southern Labrador to below the Avalon peninsula.

Fisheries biologist Karen Dwyer said there was a large increase in the species’ natural mortality, or deaths due to factors other than fishing. That includes warming water temperatures and decreases in their food sources, such as shrimp and capelin.

“We have fish that are in poor condition and all those things taken together indicate that something in the ecosystem is happening to cause these mortality levels,” she said.

Dwyer said survival rates have shifted from 70 per cent in 2016 to 48 per cent in 2017.

The cod stock remains in what Fisheries calls a “critical zone.” The department said the stock had been showing improvement since 2012 with ups and downs along the way, but posted a sharp overall drop last year.

Still, she said the harvest rate continued to climb in the past several years, suggesting there needs to be a renewed call for low catch rates.

Catches in 2015 were 4,400 tonnes, 10,000 tonnes in 2016 and 13,000 tonnes last year in the stewardship and sentinel cod fisheries, along with bycatch.

The latest estimates are a blow to fishermen who have watched with anticipation as scientists have tracked slow, gradual improvements in the stock health over the past decade.