30 years after N.L. cod moratorium – the wins are few and losses are many

July 2, 2022   Canada

John Williams wishes he could say the cod moratorium of 1992 feels like it was yesterday. But after losing his livelihood and reinventing himself a few times over, he’s felt every one of the past 30 years. Williams was one of about 30,000 people put out of work when the federal government brought an end to the northern cod fishery on July 2, 1992. It’s a date that still stirs up feelings from a solemn and desperate chapter in Newfoundland and Labrador’s history. “It was a pretty sad time to know that you weren’t going to go fishing anymore,” Williams said. “At the time I had three kids, and they had to be fed, go to school, and be clothed. It was tough.” It doesn’t help Williams that he’s constantly reminded of his small role in history — being the person who prompted former Fisheries Minister John Crosbie to utter some of his most famous words. Video, photos, >click to read< 08:38

Today Marks 30th Anniversary of Cod Moratorium – Gus Etchegary spent his working life in the fishery and has been an outspoken advocate for the industry. He believes a big contributing factor keeping stocks low is seal predation, which wasn’t a problem when stocks were healthy. He says when the resource was huge there was little impact because replacement levels overcame any pressure put on the stocks by seal predation. >click to read< 09:40

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One Response to 30 years after N.L. cod moratorium – the wins are few and losses are many

  1. Stan Squires says:
    July 3, 2022 at 12:03 am

    I am from originally from NL and i am living in Vancouver at the present time.I wanted to say that Smallwood did nothing for the Fishermen of NL.I remember in the 1960s there was a shortage of Cod Fish in NL and Smallwood did nothing about it at the time. It got worse and worse and finally there was nothing left.
    The problem was that the large Fishing Trawlers were catching huge amounts of Cod not caring whether the Cod Stock would survive or not! Certainly the Cod Stock never survived.That is Criminal Negligence by the NL Gov’t that should be condemned.The owners of the Fish Plants in NL wanted to make a Profit regardless of what happened to the Cod Stock.

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