Canada's troubled fisheries

Whether from Old Perlican, Newfoundland and Labrador, or Boat Basin, British Columbia, the commercial fish industry on Canada's east and west coasts has fallen upon similar fates. As stocks of traditional species of fish have dwindled dramatically in the Atlantic and Pacific fisheries, so too have the fortunes of the industry and the thousands of Canadians it supports.

The Atlantic fisheries, which accounted for 84% of Canada’s total fish stock in 2002, have suffered the most. After the introduction of large, year-round trawlers in the mid-1950s, the practice of overfishing by domestic and foreign fleets put substantial pressure on Atlantic fish stocks. By the early 1990s, however, the stocks began a downward spiral and the Atlantic commercial fishery nearly collapsed. The situation became so acute in 1992 that the federal government imposed moratoria on many of the Atlantic fisheries to allow stocks time to recover.

From 1990 to 2002, Atlantic catches of groundfish (fish that live on or near the ocean floor, such as cod, halibut and sole) plummeted 78%. This represents a 59% drop in their dollar value over the same time period. Newfoundland and Labrador's cod fisheries were the hardest hit. In 1990, the cod harvest of 246,000 tonnes generated $133 million. By 2002, the 21,000 tonnes of Newfoundland and Labrador cod hauled in was worth $27 million.

Though substantial declines in stocks are a more recent problem in British Columbia, they are no less severe. A marked decline in salmon stocks, which has long been the most prized catch of the West Coast, began in 1995. In 1990, British Columbia's fishers harvested 96,000 tonnes of sockeye, pink, chum, chinook and coho salmon. By 2002, this total had fallen by 66% to 33,000 tonnes.The value of British Columbia’s salmon fisheries has plummeted from 1990 to 2002. In 1990, the salmon fisheries generated $263.4 million, while in 2002, it generated only $51.6 million. The struggle to halt the decline in salmon stocks has had international implications for Canada as well. The fish, which know no boundaries, are found on both sides of the Canada–United States border. But, so too are the fishers, and heated accusations of poaching and overfishing have strained bilateral attempts to resolve the issue.

Canadian fisheries have also cast their sights (and their nets) on shellfish. Catches of lobster, shrimp, mussels, clam and other shellfish expanded from 251,000 tonnes in 1990 to 463,000 tonnes in 2002. These higher yields are not the only reason for the switch to shellfish: the landed value of shellfish soared from $519.8 million to $1.6 billion over the same period. Aquaculture, or fish farming, has also emerged as a potential long-term complement to the declining fisheries industries.