The Atlantic cod has long been a mainstay of the fishing industry. However, the cod fishing grounds of North America have either been depleted or completely wiped out by overfishing and poor management. In New England, stocks are at record lows. In the Canadian Maritimes, the cod population succumbed to overfishing long ago.
In the meantime, in Norway, there are nine cod processing plants supporting a thriving cod fishing industry. It is the same species with the same habitat producing the same reliance on this food source and industry. Yet the European fishery yields a sustainable annual catch of one million tons while North American fisheries have failed or are failing.
It turns out that the reason for the markedly different situation in Northern Europe is an international cooperative enterprise going on between Norway and Russia since the 1950s. The two nations conducted extensive surveys of the ecosystem and implemented a joint fisheries commission to manage the cod harvest. Under their agreements, the parties perform regular scientific stock assessments and establish total allowable catches.
heir practices encourage sustainability. Norwegian trawlers drag their nets over the same lanes to avoid habitat destruction and they require all by-catch to be used as food and to be considered in ecosystem analysis.
Meanwhile, in Canada, the fishing industry pressured regulators into permitting practices that were deemed risky by scientists. With economics trumping nature, the consequences were dire.
The story of the Atlantic cod fishing industry is both a cautionary one and a hopeful one. It shows that a sustainable seafood industry is possible, but that it has to be done right.
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How Norway and Russia Made A Cod Fishery Live and Thrive
Photo, posted June 19, 2012, courtesy of Free Photos and Art via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.