April 15, 2025
Rebuilding Fisheries in Canada: Capelin Biomass Falling Yet Fishing Stays Open
Rebuilding fisheries in Canada: Capelin biomass is only at 16% of its pre-collapse level, which spells disaster for northern cod's recovery. In this episode of How to Protect the Ocean, host Andrew Lewin breaks down the troubling state of Canada’s...
Rebuilding fisheries in Canada: Capelin biomass is only at 16% of its pre-collapse level, which spells disaster for northern cod's recovery. In this episode of How to Protect the Ocean, host Andrew Lewin breaks down the troubling state of Canada’s east coast fisheries. With DFO ignoring science-based recommendations, capelin is being harvested despite dangerously low numbers—and the ripple effects are hurting northern cod and entire coastal ecosystems.
Northern cod cannot recover without capelin, their primary prey, yet management plans still treat these species separately. Andrew explores the science behind this ecological link, why Oceana Canada is calling for an immediate pause on the capelin fishery, and how outdated management approaches are failing both fish and fishers. It’s time for bold leadership, honest science communication, and smarter fisheries policy.
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Transcript
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Oh my God.
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Look, how many times we
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have to go through this?
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When you don't manage
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fisheries properly, we get a collapse.
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And if you don't recover properly, you
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will get prone to another collapse.
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This is what's happening with capelin on
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the east coast of Canada.
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And we're going to talk about today why
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capelin's population is 16% of its
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pre-collapsed biomass.
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That is not good. We're going to talk
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about the health of cod,
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which is the major predator of capelin,
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and how the low biomass affects both
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capelin and northern cod population.
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We're going to talk about that on today's
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episode of the how to protect the ocean
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podcast. Let's start the show.
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Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another
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exciting episode of the how to protect
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the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew
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Lewin. And this is the podcast where you
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find out what's happening with the ocean,
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how you can speak up for the ocean, what
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you can do to live for a
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better ocean by taking action.
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And on today's episode, we're going to be
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talking about capelin, a small fish that
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is really driving the population up and
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down for northern cod. Now, northern cod,
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as you know, we talked a lot about
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actually we talked about capelin as well,
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you know, about a year ago,
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just in around a year ago.
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But we talked about both these
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populations and northern cod very famous
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for the 1992 collapse in the moratorium
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on fishing for cod. And there has been a
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32 year moratorium on this species up
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until 2024 when DFO, Department of
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Fisheries and Oceans Canada, actually
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opened up the fishery for cod, even
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though not only Oceania, but other
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organizations were saying, hey, you know
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what, maybe we should pause on this,
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especially the in-shore fishery group
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were saying, hey, we
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shouldn't open it up to the ocean.
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The offshore fishery group and they were
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saying, hey, look, capelin, we're
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actually gonna open that too, because
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that's okay to fish, but they're not
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really doing very well. And we're going
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to talk about it today because it's
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something that we have to talk about.
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The goal of the mission really of
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Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO
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here in Canada is to protect fisheries,
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not only for the environment's sake, but
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also for the sake of the fishing
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industry. When the 1992 moratorium came
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in for northern cod, there was uproar on
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how it was affecting everybody's life.
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Not only in Newfoundland, but along the
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east coast of Canada and including down
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south. This was devastating. It changed
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the landscape, economic landscape of
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Newfoundland, which was normally a
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fishing province. It was known for its
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fishing communities. Now they had to
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switch and what they were going to do,
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whether they had to switch from northern
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cod to a different species like lobster,
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crab or shrimp, or they had to get out of
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the fishing business altogether after
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generations and generations of fishing.
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So not only does it affect the
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environment, but it
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also affects all the fish.
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It affects all of the economy that's
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surrounding it. Now, of course, when you
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talk about the environmental impact, when
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fishing for cod was really starting to be
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known, there was rumors that you could
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just drop a bucket into the water and you
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would catch cod, like northern cod,
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instantly. Obviously, that's not the case
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anymore. We saw the dip. Politicians
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ignored the dip. Scientists were telling
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them, hey, you know what? There's a big
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loss of northern cod. There's a big loss
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of haddock. And when you get a loss of
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big, demersal fish, you get an abundance
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of small pelagic fish, which they eat.
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So there's a lot of stuff going on here
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from an environmental aspect and as well
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from an economic aspect. So we need to
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talk about what is happening. Oceana
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released a press release. I got it right
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in my email. I'm so glad it is. So thank
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you, Oceana Canada for doing that.
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Capeland is at 16% of its pre-collapse
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biomass and it remains severely depleted.
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So northern cod is also stagnating in its
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recovery and cannot rebound without
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healthy capelin stocks. And now just to
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talk about what is happening with the
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population of cod. Cod were
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essentially recovering in 2017.
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They were at a big growth. They were, I
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think they were hovering around 300,000
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and 600,000 tons and that was in 2017,
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but have stalled since then. So we're
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seeing obviously a stall of that
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population growth, a loss in the
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population of capelin. And capelin is the
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big prey species for northern cod.
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Northern cod are the ones that eat
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capelin all the time. So that's something
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that is really important. They're
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obviously related and their populations
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are really feeling it. Maybe there was a
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big jump in population of northern cod. So,
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you know, obviously in fishing industries
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like hey, we want to fish more fish. They
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didn't do it until 2024, but it could
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have just stagnated because capelin kept
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going down. Maybe it was because of an
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increase in the population of northern
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cod or it could be a lot of other factors
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like cumulative like climate change could
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be, you know, ocean pollution. It could
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be a variety overfishing. It could be a
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variety of things on the capelin side. So
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that's something that we have to worry
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about. Now, capelin showed signs of recovery in 2022 when fishing actually pause, but they resume the process of recovery. So they're going to be doing a lot of research on the
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fishing in 2023 and 2024 and put it back
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at risk. It just goes to show that the
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fishing pressure is what's causing
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capelin to go down. Now, cod has since
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stall, as I mentioned, 300 to 600,000
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tons in 2017, one third of its 1960
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level. So obviously 1960s is where we
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really started to pre started to see that
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decline usually in the 70s. So here are
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some of the recommendations that Oceania
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has. So there's a few of them. There's
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probably about six of them that I'm going
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to read out. So the first one is pause
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the commercial fishing of capelin
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fishery. Right? That's the first thing.
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So the first thing is pause the commercial fishing of capelin fishery. So
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that's the first thing to do. The
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population is going to be built when the
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protections are in place. Number two,
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reduce northern cod quota to support long
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term recovery. Number three, establish
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healthy thresholds and biomass targets
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aligned with the fisheries act. This
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fisheries act is a great act. It just got
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redone right before 2019. And it's about
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time and we strengthened it. But now we
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got to use it. We got to actually
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establish those healthy thresholds and
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align themselves with the fisheries act
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as well as biomass targets. Now biomass
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is the weight, of course, right?
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Abundance is the weight.
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Abundance is the number of individuals
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and number four, set annual harvest rules
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for predictable rebuilding focused
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fishing. That's the key. Number five, add
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capelin to the stock provisions of the
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fisheries act. This is to make sure that
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they are measured and they are tracked
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all the way through so that we can see if
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their population goes up or down on an
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annual basis. And then number six,
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implement modern monitoring protocols per
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DFOs Department of Fisheries and Oceans
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Canada fishery monitoring policy. So all
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these go into place to make sure that they are measured.
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And then number seven, make sure that
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these stocks are healthy. We've had
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Jessica Shins from Oceana Canada on
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before we talked about their annual
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report just last year that was done in
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2024 and done every year. And it talks
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about how a lot of these fish don't have
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monitoring plans. A lot of these fish
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don't have these rebuilding protocols.
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That's gut wrenching, especially with the
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fact that they're lowering in the number
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in population. And that's something that
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we can have. So here's a thing without
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these monitoring programs,
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without these provisions,
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they're not tracking it after this
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collapse. So you got to make sure to
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monitor the species so that we can find
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out as a recovery. Maybe this had to do
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with a lot of the recovery of cod and not
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doing so well in his
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recovery because you would
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think if you had a moratorium on fishing
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in 1992, you would expect that there'd be
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a huge recovery, but that's not so. So
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something else is going on there. Maybe
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it's the prey species. The population has
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gone up and down since then. And they
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don't have the proper benchmarks for it.
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And also recent quotas, especially in
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2024 when there was a 38.5% rise for cod
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fishing do not align with scientific and
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recovery needs. It's not lining up. This
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is the frustrating part. DFO says all
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their decisions are based on science.
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This is not true. This is not based on
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science because the science is saying
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different. And this is what happened in
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the 1992 moratorium, like the collapse of
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the codfish, the northern cod fishery. We
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keep seeing this. Last concern and
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challenges is fisheries management risk
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long term economic failure and ecological
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damage. So if you're not doing it
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properly, you're going to have a problem.
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Rebuilding these stocks, the capelin and
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the cod stocks is essential for ocean
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health, tourism and local communities.
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People come for the northern cod. People
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come for the capelin.
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They're very, very important to
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the east coast. It's entrenched in their
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culture. It's entrenched in their
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history. It's something that we need to
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protect. Northern cod could recover in 11
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years predicted to do that supporting 16
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times more jobs and $233 million in
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economic activity. Think about that.
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Think about the benefits of doing that
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and recover population in 11 years.
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That's what's predicted. If you do it
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properly, please do it properly. And of
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course, failing to act now means losing a
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rare opportunity to restore vibrant
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fishery and sustainable
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economy. So that's a big problem. Now, if
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you probably want to like Andrew, like
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this is what the science says. What are
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the people say? Now, according to ocean
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and according to April 2023 survey, 84%
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of Newfoundland and Labrador residents
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support a capelin fishery pause. That was
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in April 2023 survey and 82% believe in
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the federal government should do more to
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manage forage fish like capelin and ocean
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and Canada scientists stress the critical
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ecological, cultural and economic roles
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of capelin along the east coast of
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Canada. Look, it's really simple folks.
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We need to protect the species. We need
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to make sure that we're putting the place
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the management policies that have been
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put into place by the fisheries act. We
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just need to actually implement them. We
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have to use them. That's all we need to
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do. Just have to follow them. It's really
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not that difficult, but there's always
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pressure politically from the fishing
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industry from outside factors and outside
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companies. A big companies that are there
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for the greed. They're there for the
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money. They don't really care about the
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cod fishery. They don't really care about
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the capelin fishery. All they care is
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about their money. I'm not talking about
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artisanal fishers. These are the big, big
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unions, the big companies that just want
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to fish and they don't believe in the
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science and I'm not saying this is
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everybody, right? I don't want to
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generalize here, but this is the concern
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what happens and then the minister gives
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in. They don't follow the science. They
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have to balance it and I just don't agree
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with the way they're doing it. They can't
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just balance all the time. It doesn't
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work. It does not work and shows just the
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numbers that I've provided here today. So
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that's something of concern. I want to
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bring it to your
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attention. I've covered this piece.
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It's not really the science of these 2
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fish, the relationship between these 2
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fish for a number of years now and I
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haven't seen anything getting better. In
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fact, I'm seeing it getting worse. And so
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that's a concern. We want to see what
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would happen if we open up the fishery.
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This is what's happening. We're seeing
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lowered stocks. 16% of pre collapse level
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for capelin. Not a very good sign. And of
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course, the population of Northern Cod
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stalling since 2017 growth. So not good.
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I'd love to hear your thought about this.
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If you're watching this on the YouTube
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channel, just hit me up in the comments.
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Let me know what you think. And of
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course, if you wanted to talk to me.
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Directly you can do so by going to speak
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up for blue.com hitting me up on the
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00:10:36,916 --> 00:10:38,791
contact page below the form and you can
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contact me directly in my personal email
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or you can go to Instagram at how to
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protect the ocean. That's Instagram at
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how to protect the ocean. I want to thank
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you so much for joining me on today's
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episode of the how to protect the ocean
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podcast. I'm your host Andrew Lewin from
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the true North strong and free. Have a
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great day. We'll talk to you next time
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and happy conservation.
00:00:00,625 --> 00:00:02,458
Oh my God.
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Look, how many times we
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have to go through this?
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When you don't manage
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fisheries properly, we get a collapse.
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And if you don't recover properly, you
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will get prone to another collapse.
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This is what's happening with capelin on
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the east coast of Canada.
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And we're going to talk about today why
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capelin's population is 16% of its
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pre-collapsed biomass.
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That is not good. We're going to talk
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about the health of cod,
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which is the major predator of capelin,
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and how the low biomass affects both
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capelin and northern cod population.
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We're going to talk about that on today's
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episode of the how to protect the ocean
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podcast. Let's start the show.
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Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another
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exciting episode of the how to protect
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the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew
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Lewin. And this is the podcast where you
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find out what's happening with the ocean,
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how you can speak up for the ocean, what
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you can do to live for a
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better ocean by taking action.
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And on today's episode, we're going to be
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talking about capelin, a small fish that
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is really driving the population up and
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down for northern cod. Now, northern cod,
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as you know, we talked a lot about
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actually we talked about capelin as well,
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you know, about a year ago,
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just in around a year ago.
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But we talked about both these
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populations and northern cod very famous
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for the 1992 collapse in the moratorium
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on fishing for cod. And there has been a
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32 year moratorium on this species up
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until 2024 when DFO, Department of
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Fisheries and Oceans Canada, actually
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opened up the fishery for cod, even
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though not only Oceania, but other
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organizations were saying, hey, you know
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what, maybe we should pause on this,
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especially the in-shore fishery group
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were saying, hey, we
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shouldn't open it up to the ocean.
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The offshore fishery group and they were
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saying, hey, look, capelin, we're
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actually gonna open that too, because
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that's okay to fish, but they're not
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really doing very well. And we're going
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to talk about it today because it's
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something that we have to talk about.
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The goal of the mission really of
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Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO
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here in Canada is to protect fisheries,
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not only for the environment's sake, but
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also for the sake of the fishing
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industry. When the 1992 moratorium came
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in for northern cod, there was uproar on
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how it was affecting everybody's life.
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Not only in Newfoundland, but along the
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east coast of Canada and including down
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south. This was devastating. It changed
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the landscape, economic landscape of
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Newfoundland, which was normally a
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fishing province. It was known for its
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fishing communities. Now they had to
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switch and what they were going to do,
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whether they had to switch from northern
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cod to a different species like lobster,
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crab or shrimp, or they had to get out of
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the fishing business altogether after
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generations and generations of fishing.
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So not only does it affect the
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environment, but it
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also affects all the fish.
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It affects all of the economy that's
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surrounding it. Now, of course, when you
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talk about the environmental impact, when
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fishing for cod was really starting to be
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known, there was rumors that you could
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just drop a bucket into the water and you
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would catch cod, like northern cod,
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instantly. Obviously, that's not the case
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anymore. We saw the dip. Politicians
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ignored the dip. Scientists were telling
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them, hey, you know what? There's a big
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loss of northern cod. There's a big loss
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of haddock. And when you get a loss of
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big, demersal fish, you get an abundance
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of small pelagic fish, which they eat.
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So there's a lot of stuff going on here
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from an environmental aspect and as well
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from an economic aspect. So we need to
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talk about what is happening. Oceana
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released a press release. I got it right
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in my email. I'm so glad it is. So thank
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you, Oceana Canada for doing that.
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Capeland is at 16% of its pre-collapse
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biomass and it remains severely depleted.
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So northern cod is also stagnating in its
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recovery and cannot rebound without
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healthy capelin stocks. And now just to
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talk about what is happening with the
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population of cod. Cod were
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essentially recovering in 2017.
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They were at a big growth. They were, I
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think they were hovering around 300,000
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and 600,000 tons and that was in 2017,
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but have stalled since then. So we're
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seeing obviously a stall of that
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population growth, a loss in the
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population of capelin. And capelin is the
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big prey species for northern cod.
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Northern cod are the ones that eat
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capelin all the time. So that's something
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that is really important. They're
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obviously related and their populations
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are really feeling it. Maybe there was a
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big jump in population of northern cod. So,
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you know, obviously in fishing industries
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like hey, we want to fish more fish. They
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didn't do it until 2024, but it could
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have just stagnated because capelin kept
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going down. Maybe it was because of an
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increase in the population of northern
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cod or it could be a lot of other factors
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like cumulative like climate change could
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be, you know, ocean pollution. It could
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be a variety overfishing. It could be a
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variety of things on the capelin side. So
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that's something that we have to worry
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about. Now, capelin showed signs of recovery in 2022 when fishing actually pause, but they resume the process of recovery. So they're going to be doing a lot of research on the
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fishing in 2023 and 2024 and put it back
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at risk. It just goes to show that the
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fishing pressure is what's causing
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capelin to go down. Now, cod has since
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stall, as I mentioned, 300 to 600,000
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tons in 2017, one third of its 1960
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level. So obviously 1960s is where we
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really started to pre started to see that
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decline usually in the 70s. So here are
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some of the recommendations that Oceania
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has. So there's a few of them. There's
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probably about six of them that I'm going
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to read out. So the first one is pause
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the commercial fishing of capelin
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fishery. Right? That's the first thing.
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So the first thing is pause the commercial fishing of capelin fishery. So
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that's the first thing to do. The
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population is going to be built when the
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protections are in place. Number two,
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reduce northern cod quota to support long
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term recovery. Number three, establish
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healthy thresholds and biomass targets
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aligned with the fisheries act. This
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fisheries act is a great act. It just got
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redone right before 2019. And it's about
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time and we strengthened it. But now we
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got to use it. We got to actually
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establish those healthy thresholds and
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align themselves with the fisheries act
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as well as biomass targets. Now biomass
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is the weight, of course, right?
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Abundance is the weight.
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Abundance is the number of individuals
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and number four, set annual harvest rules
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for predictable rebuilding focused
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fishing. That's the key. Number five, add
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capelin to the stock provisions of the
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fisheries act. This is to make sure that
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they are measured and they are tracked
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all the way through so that we can see if
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their population goes up or down on an
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annual basis. And then number six,
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implement modern monitoring protocols per
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DFOs Department of Fisheries and Oceans
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Canada fishery monitoring policy. So all
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these go into place to make sure that they are measured.
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And then number seven, make sure that
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these stocks are healthy. We've had
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Jessica Shins from Oceana Canada on
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before we talked about their annual
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report just last year that was done in
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2024 and done every year. And it talks
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about how a lot of these fish don't have
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monitoring plans. A lot of these fish
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don't have these rebuilding protocols.
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That's gut wrenching, especially with the
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fact that they're lowering in the number
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in population. And that's something that
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we can have. So here's a thing without
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these monitoring programs,
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without these provisions,
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they're not tracking it after this
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collapse. So you got to make sure to
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monitor the species so that we can find
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out as a recovery. Maybe this had to do
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with a lot of the recovery of cod and not
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doing so well in his
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recovery because you would
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think if you had a moratorium on fishing
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in 1992, you would expect that there'd be
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a huge recovery, but that's not so. So
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something else is going on there. Maybe
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it's the prey species. The population has
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gone up and down since then. And they
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don't have the proper benchmarks for it.
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And also recent quotas, especially in
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2024 when there was a 38.5% rise for cod
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fishing do not align with scientific and
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recovery needs. It's not lining up. This
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is the frustrating part. DFO says all
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their decisions are based on science.
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This is not true. This is not based on
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science because the science is saying
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different. And this is what happened in
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the 1992 moratorium, like the collapse of
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the codfish, the northern cod fishery. We
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keep seeing this. Last concern and
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challenges is fisheries management risk
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long term economic failure and ecological
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damage. So if you're not doing it
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properly, you're going to have a problem.
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Rebuilding these stocks, the capelin and
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the cod stocks is essential for ocean
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health, tourism and local communities.
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People come for the northern cod. People
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come for the capelin.
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They're very, very important to
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the east coast. It's entrenched in their
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culture. It's entrenched in their
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history. It's something that we need to
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protect. Northern cod could recover in 11
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years predicted to do that supporting 16
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times more jobs and $233 million in
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economic activity. Think about that.
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Think about the benefits of doing that
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and recover population in 11 years.
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That's what's predicted. If you do it
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properly, please do it properly. And of
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course, failing to act now means losing a
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rare opportunity to restore vibrant
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fishery and sustainable
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economy. So that's a big problem. Now, if
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you probably want to like Andrew, like
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this is what the science says. What are
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the people say? Now, according to ocean
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and according to April 2023 survey, 84%
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of Newfoundland and Labrador residents
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support a capelin fishery pause. That was
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in April 2023 survey and 82% believe in
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the federal government should do more to
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manage forage fish like capelin and ocean
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and Canada scientists stress the critical
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ecological, cultural and economic roles
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of capelin along the east coast of
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Canada. Look, it's really simple folks.
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We need to protect the species. We need
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to make sure that we're putting the place
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the management policies that have been
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put into place by the fisheries act. We
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just need to actually implement them. We
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have to use them. That's all we need to
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do. Just have to follow them. It's really
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not that difficult, but there's always
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pressure politically from the fishing
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industry from outside factors and outside
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companies. A big companies that are there
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for the greed. They're there for the
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money. They don't really care about the
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cod fishery. They don't really care about
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the capelin fishery. All they care is
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about their money. I'm not talking about
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artisanal fishers. These are the big, big
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unions, the big companies that just want
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to fish and they don't believe in the
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science and I'm not saying this is
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everybody, right? I don't want to
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generalize here, but this is the concern
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what happens and then the minister gives
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in. They don't follow the science. They
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have to balance it and I just don't agree
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with the way they're doing it. They can't
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just balance all the time. It doesn't
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work. It does not work and shows just the
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numbers that I've provided here today. So
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that's something of concern. I want to
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bring it to your
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attention. I've covered this piece.
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It's not really the science of these 2
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fish, the relationship between these 2
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fish for a number of years now and I
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haven't seen anything getting better. In
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fact, I'm seeing it getting worse. And so
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that's a concern. We want to see what
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would happen if we open up the fishery.
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This is what's happening. We're seeing
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lowered stocks. 16% of pre collapse level
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for capelin. Not a very good sign. And of
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course, the population of Northern Cod
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stalling since 2017 growth. So not good.
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I'd love to hear your thought about this.
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If you're watching this on the YouTube
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channel, just hit me up in the comments.
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Let me know what you think. And of
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course, if you wanted to talk to me.
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Directly you can do so by going to speak
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up for blue.com hitting me up on the
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00:10:36,916 --> 00:10:38,791
contact page below the form and you can
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contact me directly in my personal email
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or you can go to Instagram at how to
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protect the ocean. That's Instagram at
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how to protect the ocean. I want to thank
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you so much for joining me on today's
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episode of the how to protect the ocean
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podcast. I'm your host Andrew Lewin from
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the true North strong and free. Have a
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great day. We'll talk to you next time
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and happy conservation.
