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Cod and Confederation
Broadcast Date: Oct. 10, 1958 (5:21)
As Newfoundland enters Confederation in 1949, the cod fishing industry is faced with several important changes in the way it operates. Post-Second World War technology has resulted in high-powered ships, new dragging nets and, perhaps most importantly, affordable freezing systems.
The technological leaps mean higher and more profitable catches, but also usher in the rise of the fish stick and the imminent demise of the 500-year tradition known as salt cod. This documentary clip looks at the tidal shift that took place in the cod fishery during the 1950s.
1. What is a long liner? A fisherman (long lines with baited hooks)
2. What is the oldest known way to preserve fish? (salt)
3. What has “hand labour” been replaced with? (machines, tech)
4. How are fish fillets preserved for export to the USA? (frozen)
5. What fish “delicacy” was created in the late 1950’s? (fish sticks)
Sounding the alarm
Broadcast Date: July 2, 2002 (2:06)
To many fishermen and environmentalists, 1977 marks a crucial turning point in the history of Canada's cod fishing industry. This was the year that the federal government finalized an exclusive 200-mile fishing limit off of Canada's eastern shores in the hopes of curbing foreign overfishing.
But instead of conservation, the new limit was seen as an opportunity to expand the fishery's offshore trawling boat industry to exploit what government scientists said was an inexhaustible supply of cod. This CBC Television clip recounts the offshore cod boom, in what one fishery insider calls "a madness."
1. What was NFLD’s biggest industry? Northern Cod
2. How many miles was the fishing boundary extended to in 1977?
3. How many fishermen were there in 1975? 15 000
4. How many fishermen were there in 1980? 35 000
5. How many fish processing plants were there by 1980? 175
6. Which fishermen reported lower catches? Inshore or offshore?
'The biggest layoff in Canadian history'
Broadcast Date: July 2, 1992
Fisheries Minister John Crosbie has just made the announcement everyone feared. Following six months of rumour and protest, the native Newfoundlander has shut down the fishery. Crosbie's announcement in a St. John's hotel unleashes a wave of fury from fishermen, all of which is caught on camera.
This CBC Television clip looks at that reaction and how the loss of nearly 40,000 jobs will affect the region.
1. What is a moratorium? Ban
2. Why was this mandated by the government? Drop in cod stocks
3. What percentage of all fish caught does cod represent? 40%
4. Why were the fishermen so angry with the fisheries minister? b/c he shut down a 400 yr old fishery and didn’t offer an adequate compensation package
Cataclysm in the fisheries
Broadcast Date: March 2, 1994 (16:03)
It's 1994. Cod fishing has been banned for two years and the cod stock is still declining. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Brian Tobin is forced to widen the ban to include recreational fishing which means it's illegal for fishermen to catch even one cod to feed their family.
In this eloquent CBC Television piece, native Newfoundlander Rex Murphy looks at the impact of the ban on the province's hundreds of fishing communities and comes to the "one inescapable conclusion: the outports no longer have a reason to be."
1. Who does Winston Colborne blame for collapse of the fisheries? Foreign Fishermen
2. According to Colborne, where else can a fisherman’s skills be used? Nowhere
3. NFLD Premiere Brian Tobin was forced to widen the ban to the point where fishermen couldn’t even catch a fish to feed their family.
4. What is meant by “Offshore draggers scouring the shelf for over three decades”?
5. What current draws fish to the “nose” and “tail” of the Grand Banks?
6. What “mistakes” did Ottawa (the Federal Government) make that may have led to the collapse of the fisheries?Sounding the alarm
• The 1970s saw several changes to international law that would forever alter the fisheries. In 1973 a series of quotas on Atlantic cod catches were introduced by the International Commission for Northwest Atlantic Fisheries.
• The new Total Allowable Catch (or TAC) was based on scientific advice and was intended as a conservation measure.
• But over-exploitation continued, in part because the limits were set too high, and because there was little international effort made to enforce them.
• In addition, in 1977 Canada enacted an exclusive 200-mile limit on fishing off its shores. The new law was the final step in a 150-year shift away from the ancient "law of the sea" which barred any country from claiming jurisdiction over the oceans.
• In 1822 the North Sea Fisheries Convention established a three-mile limit off the shores of several European countries including France, Germany, Denmark and Britain, and later other countries such as the Netherlands and Iceland.
• In 1945 U.S. President Harry Truman declared a four-mile zone off of America's shores in an attempt to protect its offshore oil production and fishery resources. This sparked a flurry of similar laws throughout Latin America and Europe.
• Iceland became the first country to extend its exclusive zone to 12 miles in 1958. Their zone was extended to 50 miles in 1972 and to 200 miles in 1975. These controversial moves prompted a series of high seas standoffs dubbed "The Cod Wars."
• One such standoff between Iceland and a British-led coalition in 1973 left trawler nets cut and a British boat with a hole in its hull after an Icelandic boat fired on it.
• In 1976 the European Economic Community extended Iceland's 200-mile limit to all of its coasts. The following year Canada and the United States followed suit, with 90 per cent of the world's countries adopting the same zone in short order.
• The Department of Fisheries and Oceans saw the new limit as a chance to make fishing a viable economic base for Newfoundland and the Atlantic provinces.
• In 1977 all of Newfoundland's seafood companies were merged into one corporation called Fishery Products International in an effort to maximize the offshore cod stock.
• Fisheries and Oceans officials were acting on what former Fisheries minister Walter Carter called "fantastic" predictions that the cod stocks would double in the 1980s.
• In fact the move away from traditional inshore fishing boats to larger offshore fishing trawlers proved profitable. The number of Newfoundland fishermen more than doubled from 1975 to 1980 to 35,000.
• The traditional backbone of the fisheries, inshore fishing typically takes place in small boats (or "skiffs") not far from the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
• The offshore fishery operates further out at sea and employs factory ships with larger crews and a wide range of newer technologies.
• In 1987 the Department of Fisheries and Oceans declared Newfoundland's fishery a financial success — but this proved a hasty assessment. While the offshore fishery was hauling in huge catches, the inshore fishermen were recording severely smaller hauls.
• Environmentalists and inshore fishermen began to argue that the boom in the fishery was simply a result of massive overfishing on the part of offshore factory ships.
• Ransom Myers, a Fisheries and Oceans scientist at the time, later claimed that several of his reports warning of high fishing quotas were ignored to suit political ends.
• One of his reports stated in Latin that the Department's assessments about fish stocks were non gratum anus rodentum or "not worth a rat's ass."
• In 1989, DFO scientists would admit that their predictions had been overly optimistic and that the cod stocks on the Grand Banks were actually declining, not doubling in size.
Sounding the alarm
Medium: Television
Program: Countrywide
Broadcast Date: July 2, 2002
Guest(s): Walter Carter, Richard Cashin
Reporter: Doug Letto
Duration: 2:06
Last updated:
Feb. 11, 2005