The wound of the 1992 Cod Moratorium still festers after all these years.
It's been 22 years today that the near 550-year-old fishery narrative was forever altered in our province.
With the collapse of the Cod stocks and the declaration of the moratorium, we lost scores of jobs from 400 communities (the largest industrial closure in Canadian history), and people (80,000 left the province!); and our society and culture took a bad beating.
Some say that the Moratorium milestone ranks up there in significance with the founding of this land in 1497... it was that huge - then, and still remains so today.
For those with a connection to the fishery and our rural places, our hearts still aches for the mess-management that brought us to that point, all that has slipped away from us since and for the cavalier approach by both governments in restoring the resource over the past 2 decades.
In 2005 government produced a document called A Strategy for the Recovery and Management of Cod Stocks in Newfoundland and Labrador. Nearly a decade later, government #INACTION nailed it to a cross of gross negligence. Now, we are told that because Canada signed an international agreement committing them to using the Precautionary approach in managing fish stocks, they decided (in 2009) that rebuilding plans were needed (some smart they are). Two years later (in 2011) DFO took the next giant step and formed working groups to develop rebuilding plans in areas 2JKL, 3PS and 3Pn4RS. There are no formal written terms of reference as yet - at the rate they going, that may take another few decades.
If Canada is ever to move on properly rebuilding the Cod fishery, it will take international pressure from people concerned about world fish stocks. Ottawa has shown time and time again, they could care less, nor do they understand, the fishery, its health and the socio-economic and cultural importance to our province.
It's been 22 years ... a long wait for our heart and soul to be returned to our province.
And as one wise observer of the fishery has stated:
Until Ottawa is forced to accept its responsibility and restore the fishery, the future
of the Newfoundland and Labrador economy is in jeopardy. Unless we have a restored and viable renewable fishery, reliance on non- renewable resources (oil and
minerals) will lead to economic disaster.
Then there are those who say if the Cod comes back in full abundance, who will want to fish it?
Rebuild it Ottawa - because it's the right and moral thing to do and because you owe us big time.
And we can assure you we will come to fish it. It's in our centuries-old fishing genes.
It's been 22 years today that the near 550-year-old fishery narrative was forever altered in our province.
With the collapse of the Cod stocks and the declaration of the moratorium, we lost scores of jobs from 400 communities (the largest industrial closure in Canadian history), and people (80,000 left the province!); and our society and culture took a bad beating.
Some say that the Moratorium milestone ranks up there in significance with the founding of this land in 1497... it was that huge - then, and still remains so today.
For those with a connection to the fishery and our rural places, our hearts still aches for the mess-management that brought us to that point, all that has slipped away from us since and for the cavalier approach by both governments in restoring the resource over the past 2 decades.
In 2005 government produced a document called A Strategy for the Recovery and Management of Cod Stocks in Newfoundland and Labrador. Nearly a decade later, government #INACTION nailed it to a cross of gross negligence. Now, we are told that because Canada signed an international agreement committing them to using the Precautionary approach in managing fish stocks, they decided (in 2009) that rebuilding plans were needed (some smart they are). Two years later (in 2011) DFO took the next giant step and formed working groups to develop rebuilding plans in areas 2JKL, 3PS and 3Pn4RS. There are no formal written terms of reference as yet - at the rate they going, that may take another few decades.
If Canada is ever to move on properly rebuilding the Cod fishery, it will take international pressure from people concerned about world fish stocks. Ottawa has shown time and time again, they could care less, nor do they understand, the fishery, its health and the socio-economic and cultural importance to our province.
It's been 22 years ... a long wait for our heart and soul to be returned to our province.
And as one wise observer of the fishery has stated:
Until Ottawa is forced to accept its responsibility and restore the fishery, the future
of the Newfoundland and Labrador economy is in jeopardy. Unless we have a restored and viable renewable fishery, reliance on non- renewable resources (oil and
minerals) will lead to economic disaster.
Then there are those who say if the Cod comes back in full abundance, who will want to fish it?
Rebuild it Ottawa - because it's the right and moral thing to do and because you owe us big time.
And we can assure you we will come to fish it. It's in our centuries-old fishing genes.
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