10/15/2018
Last week, DFO closed the northern cod stewardship fishery to all fish harvesters except for those who selected the fall fishery option due to 87% of the TAC being landed at that point. It is expected that at the end of this week there will still be considerable allocation not landed. As a result of this, FFAW-Unifor has requested that the fishery reopen for all fish harvesters next week until the remaining quota has been caught.
The 2018 northern cod fishery has been successful for inshore harvesters in our province. Northern cod landings came in at a much higher rate than anticipated, which is a very good indicator for the health of the stock. Removals by the stewardship fishery have been ultraconservative with no evidence of an impact on the overall stock trajectory. All bait fisheries this year including squid and capelin were immensely successful this season and are also positive signs for the northern cod stock.
We would expect a response from DFO on this request later this week and will provide updates when available.