Editing Cod (section)

===Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery===
{{main|Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery}}
{{tone|date=December 2024}}
[[File:Surexploitation morue surpêcheEn.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[Atlantic cod#Northwest Atlantic cod|Atlantic fishery]] abruptly collapsed in 1992, following [[overfishing]] since the late 1950s, and an earlier partial collapse in the 1970s.<ref name=Frank>{{cite journal|author1=Kenneth T. Frank |author2=Brian Petrie |author3=Jae S. Choi |author4=William C. Leggett |year=2005|title=Trophic Cascades in a Formerly Cod-Dominated Ecosystem|journal=Science|volume=308 |pages=1621–1623|doi=10.1126/science.1113075|pmid=15947186|issue=5728|bibcode=2005Sci...308.1621F |s2cid=45088691 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grida.no/graphicslib/detail/collapse-of-atlantic-cod-stocks-off-the-east-coast-of-newfoundland-in-1992_11e4|title=Collapse of Atlantic cod stocks off the East Coast of Newfoundland in 1992 {{!}} GRID-Arendal – Maps & Graphics library|website=www.grida.no|access-date=2017-02-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222194251/http://www.grida.no/graphicslib/detail/collapse-of-atlantic-cod-stocks-off-the-east-coast-of-newfoundland-in-1992_11e4|archive-date=22 February 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

On July 2, 1992, the Honourable [[John Crosbie]], Canadian [[Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada)|Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]], declared a two-year [[Moratorium (law)|moratorium]] on the Northern Cod fishery,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The cod delusion |url=https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/the-cod-delusion/ |access-date=2024-01-07 |website=canadiangeographic.ca |language=en-US}}</ref> a designated fishing region off the coast of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]], after data showed that the total cod biomass had suffered a collapse to less than 1% of its normal value.<ref name="Hamilton and Butler, 1">Hamilton and Butler, 1.</ref> The minister championed the measure as a temporary solution, allowing the cod population time to recover.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Mason |first=Fred |date=2002 |title=The Newfoundland Cod Stock Collapse: A Review and Analysis of Social Factors |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/19p7z78s |journal=Electronic Green Journal |language=en |volume=1 |issue=17 |doi=10.5070/G311710480}}</ref> The fisheries had long shaped the lives and communities on Canada's Atlantic eastern coast for the preceding five centuries. Societies which are dependent on fishing have a strong mutual relationship with them: the act of fishing changes the ecosystems' balance, which forces the fishery and, in turn, the fishing societies to adapt to new ecological conditions.<ref name="Hamilton and Butler, 1"/>

The near-complete destruction of the Atlantic northwest cod biomass off the shores devastated coastal communities, which had been overexploiting the same cod population for decades.<ref name=":1" /> The fishermen along the Atlantic northwest had employed modern fishing technologies, including the ecologically-devastating practice of [[trawling]], especially in the years leading up to the 1990s, in the misguided belief that fishing stocks are perpetually plentiful and unable to be depleted.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pedersen |first1=Eric J. |last2=Thompson |first2=Patrick L. |last3=Ball |first3=R. Aaron |last4=Fortin |first4=Marie-Josée |last5=Gouhier |first5=Tarik C. |last6=Link |first6=Heike |last7=Moritz |first7=Charlotte |last8=Nenzen |first8=Hedvig |last9=Stanley |first9=Ryan R. E. |last10=Taranu |first10=Zofia E. |last11=Gonzalez |first11=Andrew |last12=Guichard |first12=Frédéric |last13=Pepin |first13=Pierre |date=July 2017 |title=Signatures of the collapse and incipient recovery of an overexploited marine ecosystem |journal=Royal Society Open Science |language=en |volume=4 |issue=7 |pages=170215 |doi=10.1098/rsos.170215 |issn=2054-5703 |pmc=5541544 |pmid=28791149|bibcode=2017RSOS....470215P }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> After this assumption was empirically and abruptly shown to be incorrect, to the dismay of government officials and rural workers, some 19,000 fishermen and cod processing plant workers in Newfoundland lost their employment.<ref name=":1" /> Nearly 40,000 workers and harvesters in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador applied for the federal relief program TAGS (the Atlantic Groundfish Strategy). Abandoned and rusting fishing boats still litter the coasts of Newfoundland and the Canadian northwest to this day.<ref name=":0" />

The fishery minister, John Crosbie, after delivering a speech on the day before the declaration of the moratorium, or July 1, 1992, was publicly heckled and verbally harassed by disgruntled locals at a fishing village.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-07 |title=Fish still missing, traditions extinct 30 years after N.L. cod moratorium {{!}} CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/cod-moratorium-30th-anniversary-1.6506628 |access-date=2024-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107022718/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/cod-moratorium-30th-anniversary-1.6506628 |archive-date=7 January 2024 }}</ref> The moratorium, initially lasting for only two years,<ref name=":1" /> was indefinitely extended after it became evident that cod populations had not recovered at all but, instead, had continued to spiral downward in both size and numbers, due to the damage caused by decades of horrible fishing practices, and the fact that the moratorium had permitted exceptions for food fisheries for "personal consumption" purposes to this very day.<ref name=":1" /> Some 12,000 tons of Northwest cod are still being caught every year along the Newfoundland coast by local fishermen.<ref name=":0" />

The collapse of the four-million ton biomass, which had persevered through several previous marine extinctions over tens of millions of years, in a timespan of no more than 20 years, is oft-cited by researchers as one of the most visible examples of the phenomenon of the "Tragedy of the Commons."<ref name=":1" /> Factors which had been implicated as contributing to the collapse include: overfishing; government mismanagement; the disregard of scientific uncertainty;<ref name=":1" /> warming habitat waters; declining reproduction; and plain human ignorance.<ref name=":0" /> The Northern Cod biomass has been recovering slowly since the imposition of the moratorium. However, as of 2021, the growth of the cod population has been stagnant since 2017, and some scientists argue that the population will not rebound unless the Fisheries Department of Canada lower its yearly quota to 5,000 tons.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-07 |title=After almost 3 decades, cod are still not back off N.L. Scientists worry it may never happen {{!}} CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/cod-return-1.5992916 |access-date=2024-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107023258/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/cod-return-1.5992916 |archive-date=7 January 2024 }}</ref>

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 | image1    = Moll - Inset Codfish Map.png
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 | caption1  = [[Fishing stage]] for curing and drying cod, [[Herman Moll]] 1654–1732
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 | caption2  = Drying fish 1908
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 | caption3  = Cod and halibut before 1927
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 | image1    = La pêche de la morue à Terre-Neuve en 1858-fabrication de l’huile de morue.jpg
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 | caption1  = Manufacturing cod-liver oil,<br />Newfoundland 1858 <ref name=Girard>Girard, Fulgence (1858) [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_p%C3%AAche_de_la_morue La pêche de la morue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730222620/http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_p%C3%AAche_de_la_morue |date=30 July 2012 }} (The cod fishery) ''Le Monde illustré'', '''53'''. 17 April 1858. [http://translate.google.co.nz/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Ffr.wikisource.org%2Fwiki%2FLa_p%25C3%25AAche_de_la_morue&act=url Google translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224000455/http://translate.google.co.nz/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http:%2F%2Ffr.wikisource.org%2Fwiki%2FLa_p%C3%AAche_de_la_morue&act=url |date=24 February 2014 }}</ref>

 | image2    = La pêche de la morue à Terre-Neuve en 1858.jpg
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 | caption2  = Cod fishery,<br />Newfoundland 1858 <ref name=Girard />
 | image3    = Carlisle Packing Co floating cannery NOAA.jpg
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 | caption3  = Carlisle Packaging Company, a floating cod cannery, [[Yukon River]], Alaska c. 1918
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 | caption1  = Sign for the Cod and Lobster
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 | caption3  = Little Girl with a Cod, [[Anna Ancher]]
 | image4    = Isaac van Duynen - Still life of fish.jpg
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 | caption4  = Still-life with fish and shellfish, [[Isaac van Duynen]]

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 | caption1  = Cod postage stamp, [[Dominion of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]]
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