In 1992,the devastating collapse of the cod stocks of/ the East coast ofNewfoundland forced the Canadian government to take drastic measures and closethe fishery. Over 40,000 people lost their jobs, communities are still struggling torecover and the marine ecosystem is still in a state of collapse. The disintegration ofthis vital fishery sounded a warning bell to governments around the world who wereshocked that a relatively sophisticated, scientifically based fisheries management program, not unlike their own, ould have gone so wrong. The Canadiangovernment ignored warnings that their fleets were employing destructive fishingpractices and refused to significantly reduce quotas citing the loss of jobs as too greata concern.
In the 1950s Canadian and US east coast waters provided an annual 100,000 tons incod catches rising to 800,000 by 1970. This over fishing led to a catch of only300,000 tons by 1975. Canada and the US reacted by passing legislation to extendtheir national jurisdictions over marine living resources out to 200 nautical miles andcatches naturally declined to 139,000 tons in 1980. However, the Canadian fishingindustry took over and restarted the over fishing and catches rose again until, from1985, it was the Canadians who were landing more than 250,000 tons of northerncod annually.
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