When John Cabot arrived on the shores of Newfoundland 500
years ago, cod was so plentiful that sailors could reportedly
scoop them up into their ships with buckets. For Cabot and other
early explorers and settlers, Newfoundland's cod was an oceanic
jackpot that fostered a lucrative fish trade between North American
and European countries.
In 1997, however, the Newfoundland fishery that once drove
the province's economy is in a slump. In 1992, the federal government
declared a moratorium on cod fishing because of devastatingly
low cod stocks. Closing the northern cod harvest put 30,000 Newfoundlanders
out of work. By 1993, all Canadian cod fishing was banned. Ottawa
re-established limited cod catches off the province's south coast
this year.
Here, Canadian Geographic presents the rise and fall
of cod: background information, historical stories and quotes,
as well as a modern perspective on the cod's status in Canadian
waters. Click on your selection.
- Characteristics of Gadus morhua:
scientific classification, range, physical traits, food and more...
- Cod quotables
- Cabot's trail: Five hundred
years ago, John Cabot crossed the Atlantic in search of the Orient.
Instead, he found Newfoundland -- and a sea full of cod. A story
by Heather Pringle (from CG, July/August '97)
- Mapping Newfoundland's
cod fisheries: 16th to 18th century
- Cod in time: Canada's cod fishing
history
- Where are they now? The current
status of the Atlantic cod in Canada and the confidential report
that calls the fish endangered
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