#gadidae

After years of decline, cod and a community rebound in Newfoundland - The Boston Globe

For more than 500 years, the iceberg-filled waters off Newfoundland’s craggy coast teemed with a seemingly endless supply of cod, so much that it sparked wars, drew immigrants from far away, and defined the rhythm of life.

Here, cod have been so woven into the culture that most people refer to them simply as fish — as if there were no other.

In the late 1960s, when times were good, local fishermen would catch some 800,000 metric tons a year of the olive-backed fish known as the northern cod. In the 1980s, their catch dropped by more than one-third, but the population still appeared relatively healthy. In 1987, the government estimated there were 940,000 metric tons of cod old enough to reproduce.

But after years of overfishing, changing sea temperatures, and mismanagement, cod had virtually vanished. By the time Canadian officials declared the moratorium in 1992, they estimated the population of mature cod — which are vital to a sustainable fishery — had plummeted 60 percent in five years. Three years later, even after almost all fishing stopped, the population had dropped even more precipitously, to less than 10,000 metric tons of the adult fish.

For cod fishermen in New England, where federal authorities two years ago declared a similar moratorium on commercial catches, Newfoundland’s experience provides lessons in the consequences of poor management, the possible impact of climate change, the long years — even decades — it can take for the population to rebound.

Just as some 40,000 fishermen, processing plant employees, and others connected to Newfoundland’s cod industry lost their jobs as a result of the moratorium, fishermen from Cape Cod to Port Clyde, Maine, have also suffered under strict quotas as the Gulf of Maine cod stocks have fallen to just 3 percent of healthy levels. A storied industry that helped finance the American Revolution and brought so much wealth to the region that a wooden “Sacred Cod” has hung in the Massachusetts State House for more than two centuries is now at risk of dying.

But in Newfoundland, there are now promising signs that the ecosystem is repairing itself. This spring, Canadian fishing authorities released a report suggesting that cod are finally making a comeback.

“There are lots of good signs, like young fish,” said John Brattey, a government research scientist who helped oversee the recent cod survey. “We’re seeing considerable potential for good growth.”

The report found that the adult population of northern cod had more than doubled in size over the past three years, and it estimates that the spawning stock will double again within the next three years — bringing it two-thirds of the way back to a healthy fishery.

The strict catch limits remain. But with an estimated 300,000 metric tons of cod now inhabiting local waters, and promising prospects for exponential growth, scientists and others say that within a few years, the government could substantially increase quotas, spurring the rebirth of a major cod fishery.

George Rose, a recently retired professor of fisheries science at Memorial University in Newfoundland, has found similar evidence of the rebound in a survey he has been conducting for decades. He called the moratorium “essential” to the recovery.

Gadids! Almost an entire tank devoted to Gadids!

What people forget about the family Gadidae is that these guys practically dominated landings until the Atlantic cod fishery collapsed. Cod have a light, tender and pleasant meat when fresh and well prepared.