Environment and Energy

Newfoundland's cod moratorium: empty nets and broken promises

KCBX | By Rebekah Nolan

Published December 21, 2017 at 5:43 AM PST

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Leo driving his make-and-break engine boat, Maggie around Petty Harbour.

Rebekah Nolan

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Journeys of Discovery Correspondent Rebekah Nolan interviewing Leo Hearn the day before the 2017 food fishery opens.

Rebekah Nolan

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Petty Harbour in the 1860s-Cod as far as the eye can see.

The Rooms

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A 1940s Make-and-break engine in Leo’s boat named Maggie. ";

Rebekah Nolan

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Leo’s wife, Kimberley, teaching MacGregor, one of the girls who fish members, how to properly cut cod tongues. ";

Rebekah Nolan

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Cutting out and selling cod tongues used to be young Newfoundlanders’ introduction to the fishery. But today it is harder and harder to find young people who have this skill. ";

Rebekah Nolan

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The view form Leo’s Fishing stage.";

Marshall Oxtoby

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Petty Harbour, Newfoundland

Marshall Oxtoby

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A traditional Newfoundland Dory docked at Leo and Kimberley’s stage ";

Marshall Oxtoby

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Corespondent Rebekah Nolan cutting out her first cod tongue.

Elise Thorburn

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A cod trap hanging outside Leo’s shed in Petty Harbour. Once important tools of the trade, Cod traps are now mostly decorative, having been replaced by more industrialized ways of fishing. ";

Rebeckah Nolan

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Canadian postage stamp celebrating cod fishery

Rebekah Nolan

Petty Harbour fisherman Leo Hearn catching a cod using a hardline — Leo Hearn catching a cod using a hardline. This was the traditional way of fishing in Petty Harbour for the last 250 years.

Newfoundland is an island that has always been defined by fishing. The first settlers came over from England and Ireland to harvest the seemingly boundless supplies of cod that inhabited the grand banks.

The cod was dried, salted and shipped all over the world, filling hungry bellies and pockets across the globe. Cod was the cornerstone of Newfoundland identity, and nearly everybody was involved in the fishery somehow.

A young boy stands between two 'blowers,' giant northern cod, in the iconic photo by Newfoundland photographer Robert Holloway taken in Battle Harbour, Labrador, in 1901. — A young boy stands between two 'blowers,' giant northern cod, in the iconic photo by Newfoundland photographer Robert Holloway taken in Battle Harbour, Labrador, in 1901

Traditionally Cod was harvested inshore using handlines, jiggers, and cod traps. Fishing was a community endeavor, and people looked out for each other.

Fast forward a hundred years or so, and cod harvesting was industrialized, with Canadian, Portuguese and Japanese fleets harvesting and processing about a million tons of Cod a year.

Inshore fishermen began to notice the numbers of cod begin to decrees, and it wasn’t long until there were hardly any left.

After decades of mismanagement and overfishing, the once mighty cod stocks were fished to the brink of extinction.

In an effort to save the species, then Fisheries Minister John Crosbie called a moratorium on the harvesting of codfish in Newfoundland.

The moratorium was initially only supposed to last two years, but has lasted for over two decades. It was the most defining moment in the province’s history, and the ramifications can still be felt and seen to this day.

It has been 25 years since the advent of the Cod Moratorium, drastically changing the cultural and economic landscape of Newfoundland.

Journeys correspondent Rebekah Nolan spoke with fisherman Leo Hearn of Petty Harbour about what the Moratorium did to him and his community.

To learn more about Leo and Petty Harbour check out Rebekah’s previous piece on Fishing for Success:

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Relevent links:

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/moratorium.php

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/fishery.php