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Hamilton Spectator
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Scientists question Ottawa more than doubling cod catch in Newfoundland and Labrador
ST. JOHN'S - Scientists say they are surprised and 'puzzled' by the federal fisheries minister's decision Wednesday to more than double the catch in this year's northern cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador. Noel Cadigan modelled the northern cod stock for years as a scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He said the move to hike catch limits this year doesn't line up with the precautionary management approach the department says it has adopted for the stock. 'It is not easy to reduce these quotas again,' the associate professor at Memorial University's Marine Institute said Thursday. 'You want to be sure that these increases are going to be sustainable over the medium term.' 'I don't see evidence for that,' he added. Federal fisheries minister Joanne Thompson announced Wednesday that the total allowable catch for the commercial northern cod fishery off Newfoundland and Labrador's east coast would be 38,000 tonnes this year. That's up from 18,000 tonnes in 2024. For centuries, the northern cod fishery was the backbone of Newfoundland and Labrador's fishing sector and rural economy. But the stock began to collapse and in 1992, the federal government imposed a moratorium on the fishery. The move resulted in one of the largest mass layoffs in Canadian history. Ottawa lifted the 32-year-old moratorium last year, drawing criticism from some scientists who say the stock is still trying to recover. The Fisheries Department's northern cod stock assessment earlier this year was much rosier than the last. It included revised estimates of the stock size and the threshold at which it would struggle to survive. The chance the stock is above that threshold is greater than 99 per cent, it said. The department has not yet determined a threshold at which the stock would be considered healthy. If the stock falls between the goalposts for struggling and healthy, it is considered to be in the 'cautious' zone. Cadigan noted that according to the department's own guidelines, 'fishing must be progressively reduced' on stocks in that zone. The assessment also said there was a moderate to moderately high chance the stock would decline in the next few years, even if it wasn't fished. Cadigan said Thompson seems to be 'gambling' on that not happening. Tyler Eddy, a Marine Institute research scientist, said the assessment also predicted if fishing levels were doubled this year, there was just a four per cent chance the stock would fall back down past the threshold at which it was threatened by 2026. But Cadigan said the point should be to avoid that precipice at all costs. 'You're talking about a small risk of a disaster,' he said. Sherrylynn Rowe, also a Marine Institute research scientist, said the data in the latest stock assessment made Thompson's decision surprising. The Fisheries Department's press release Wednesday said the stock has been stable since 2017. Rowe said that also means it hasn't shown any significant growth. However, she said officials are under a lot of pressure from the local fishing industry to increase quotas and catches. From that perspective, the minister's decision isn't quite as shocking, she said. 'This is a challenge in Canada,' she said in an interview. 'Within the Department of Fisheries, they have a dual mandate to both protect oceans and fish stocks, but also promote fisheries … It's not always clear how the various objectives are weighted when they make these types of decisions.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Winnipeg Free Press
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Scientists question Ottawa more than doubling cod catch in Newfoundland and Labrador
ST. JOHN'S – Scientists say they are surprised and 'puzzled' by the federal fisheries minister's decision Wednesday to more than double the catch in this year's northern cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador. Noel Cadigan modelled the northern cod stock for years as a scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He said the move to hike catch limits this year doesn't line up with the precautionary management approach the department says it has adopted for the stock. 'It is not easy to reduce these quotas again,' the associate professor at Memorial University's Marine Institute said Thursday. 'You want to be sure that these increases are going to be sustainable over the medium term.' 'I don't see evidence for that,' he added. Federal fisheries minister Joanne Thompson announced Wednesday that the total allowable catch for the commercial northern cod fishery off Newfoundland and Labrador's east coast would be 38,000 tonnes this year. That's up from 18,000 tonnes in 2024. For centuries, the northern cod fishery was the backbone of Newfoundland and Labrador's fishing sector and rural economy. But the stock began to collapse and in 1992, the federal government imposed a moratorium on the fishery. The move resulted in one of the largest mass layoffs in Canadian history. Ottawa lifted the 32-year-old moratorium last year, drawing criticism from some scientists who say the stock is still trying to recover. The Fisheries Department's northern cod stock assessment earlier this year was much rosier than the last. It included revised estimates of the stock size and the threshold at which it would struggle to survive. The chance the stock is above that threshold is greater than 99 per cent, it said. The department has not yet determined a threshold at which the stock would be considered healthy. If the stock falls between the goalposts for struggling and healthy, it is considered to be in the 'cautious' zone. Cadigan noted that according to the department's own guidelines, 'fishing must be progressively reduced' on stocks in that zone. The assessment also said there was a moderate to moderately high chance the stock would decline in the next few years, even if it wasn't fished. Cadigan said Thompson seems to be 'gambling' on that not happening. Tyler Eddy, a Marine Institute research scientist, said the assessment also predicted if fishing levels were doubled this year, there was just a four per cent chance the stock would fall back down past the threshold at which it was threatened by 2026. But Cadigan said the point should be to avoid that precipice at all costs. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'You're talking about a small risk of a disaster,' he said. Sherrylynn Rowe, also a Marine Institute research scientist, said the data in the latest stock assessment made Thompson's decision surprising. The Fisheries Department's press release Wednesday said the stock has been stable since 2017. Rowe said that also means it hasn't shown any significant growth. However, she said officials are under a lot of pressure from the local fishing industry to increase quotas and catches. From that perspective, the minister's decision isn't quite as shocking, she said. 'This is a challenge in Canada,' she said in an interview. 'Within the Department of Fisheries, they have a dual mandate to both protect oceans and fish stocks, but also promote fisheries … It's not always clear how the various objectives are weighted when they make these types of decisions.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2025.
CBC
09-06-2025
- General
- CBC
Change Islands teenager named 'hero' by World Oceans Day committee
Newfoundland and Labrador celebrated World Oceans Day this weekend, and the celebration committee named a new hero to mark it. Brody King, 14, of Change Islands spotted a strange species of crab while walking near the coast in his hometown, and correctly identified it as the invasive European green crab. "[It] looked different than the normal ones we were used to seeing," King told CBC News at a World Oceans Day celebration at the Marine Institute in St. John's on Saturday. With that in mind, he said he and his cousin brought a few of the crabs home and sent them to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. A DFO coordinator called up the World Oceans Day Newfoundland and Labrador committee to commend King for his effort. "Here we are, I'm ocean hero of the year," he said. King said people in his community now know how to recognize the invasive crab by its unusual colour and back markings. He said he's going to take his award home with pride. "I've been on the ocean since I was a little kid, since I could walk," he said. "It means a lot to me that we could help the ocean and protect it." WATCH | This teen flagged invasive green crab to the DFO — and earned the title of N.L.'s first Ocean Hero of the Year: 14-year-old from Change Islands named N.L.'s first Ocean Hero of the Year 2 days ago Duration 1:50 World Oceans Day committee chair Dawn Mercer said many people in the province feel that same connection to the water, which is one of the reasons why it's important to conserve it. It also makes for a successful awareness event. "This has been a phenomenal, phenomenal outreach in terms of World Oceans Day," said Mercer. "The reason why we do it is because it's a celebration. It's a celebration of our oceans, but it's also a celebration of us as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians." Educational activities are a big help, said Mercer, who is also a senior oceans biologist with the DFO. The Marine Institute featured touch tanks with different underwater creatures, story readings and other family-friendly activities. Mercer said the day also reminds people of the tangible ways to help. "If you're at the grocery store, maybe buy something that's not in plastic packaging," Mercer said. "It's just the little everyday things that we can tell people while they're at our events that they can take home and start implementing in their everyday lives," she added.
Extra.ie
09-06-2025
- Science
- Extra.ie
Water temperatures damaging fish stocks in two of our most famous rivers
Water temperatures are damaging fish stocks in two of our most famous rivers, marine scientists have discovered. At Lough Feeagh in Co. Mayo the highest temperatures in 70 years, when recording began, have been seen. Sea temperatures off the western and southern coasts were so high they constituted a marine heat wave and some of our most famous salmon rivers – the Moy and Erriff – were closed due to the escalating warmth in the water which is stressful to fish. Cows on the shores of Lough Feeagh, county Mayo, Ireland. Pic: Shutterstock Lough Feeagh provides a testing area for biologists from the Marine Institute, who have been monitoring the rising temperatures and observing how Atlantic salmon have been adapting. Marine biologists Dr Elvira de Eyto and Dr Joshka Kaufmann explained how warming of the seas will affect Atlantic salmon. They collect water samples for testing and carry out analyses 'pretty quickly'. Dr de Eyto explained to RTÉ's Countrywide that the lake is probably one of the most monitored in Ireland by accident. 'The lake would be monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency and also by the Marine Institute as (both) have a long history there since the 1950s. Water temperatures are damaging fish stocks in two of our most famous rivers, marine scientists have discovered. Pic: Shutterstock 'The two channels here lead out to the Atlantic and every migratory fish such as Atlantic salmon, brown trout and European eel,' she Rivers said. All three of the fish closed: types are counted by the Atlantic.' staff of the Marine Institute salmon twice a day. 'We need the environmental data to support the fish data such as water temperature, the oxygen in the water, the chemistry of the rivers, the food sources – all the things that might change how a fish is reacting. 'Data was taken in 2015 as part of global lake temperature collaboration and one of the papers we used showed signs of warming, and now 10 years on in 2025 we see that rate increasing. 'It shows that the water temperature is increasing 0.2 degrees per decade. The scientists had seen the water temperatures increasing late last month when it was warm for the time of year. Pic: Shutterstock 'That is 1.4 degrees in seven decades. And [with] our winter warming by 0.3 degrees, we are not seeing those really cold temperatures which are needed,' Dr de Eyto said. The scientists had seen the water temperatures increasing late last month when it was warm for the time of year. 'We were seeing temperatures of 15, 16, 17C degrees in the hatchery where we run some breeding programs which are really high for May and much higher than we would expect and the temperature off the coast was three degrees warmer than normal. 'What was happening at sea was being mirrored in Lough Feeagh,' Dr de Eyto said. 'The warmest months are August or September and the coolest February or March. This year the colder months have not really cooled the water as much as we would have liked to see. 'All these ecosystems are not separate; they are all interlinked from the top of mountains right out to the Atlantic.'
Irish Independent
08-06-2025
- Climate
- Irish Independent
Ireland makes waves on a global scale as seven-storey swell recorded off coast of Cork
Data released by the Marine Institute shows the 21.9-metre wave was captured by the M3 weather buoy, 56km south-west of Mizen Head at 10am on January 27, making it one of the largest waves ever logged in Irish waters. 'That wave was recorded during Storm Éowyn as it passed over Ireland. The M3 buoy is located approximately 55km offshore west-southwest of Mizen Head, Co Cork, the southernmost point of Ireland,' said Alan Berry, research infrastructure manager at the Marine Institute. But the towering swell off the Cork coast pales beside two freak waves that breached the 30-metre mark over the past decade. A record-breaking rogue wave measuring 32.3m was recorded five years ago, nearly 400km off the Galway coast by the M6 buoy stationed in the deep Atlantic, according to the Marine Institute. It remains the largest confirmed wave ever measured in Irish waters, although an unverified larger swell was logged 11 years ago. 'Analysis of raw data from a wave rider buoy operated by ESB at Killard, Co Clare, suggested that a 33.96m wave was recorded on January 26, 2014,' Mr Berry said. 'The accuracy of that observation has never been verified and should be treated with caution due to the depth of water [39m] and the stated operating range of the wave monitoring buoy. 'A number of verified rogue waves were recorded by the buoy in the following two days, including the 'Killard Wave' measuring 26.45m and a number of other waves in excess of 20m. 'But, to the best of our knowledge, the 32.3m wave recorded at the M6 buoy in 2020 is the largest recorded wave ever in Irish waters.' Ireland's exposed position on the storm-tossed track of North Atlantic low-pressure systems gives rise to some of the most colossal seas on the planet Closer to land, a 30.96m wave was measured by a weather buoy 10 miles off the coast of Belmullet in the westerly tip of Mayo just after midnight on March 2, 2016. The same buoy recorded a 26.35m rogue wave the following night at 3am. Mr Berry said the Belmullet coast experiences some of Ireland's tallest waves because it lies close to the edge of the continental shelf, where the relatively shallow coastal waters — around 250 metres deep — drop sharply into the deep ocean, which plunges to about 3,000 metres. Ireland's exposed position on the storm-tossed track of North Atlantic low-pressure systems gives rise to some of the most colossal seas on the planet. Rogue waves — steep, solitary swells that rise at least twice as high as the surrounding sea — were once thought to be maritime myth, but are now well-documented. According to researchers, between one in every 10,000 and one in every 30,000 waves fall into this rare category. The data from the Marine Institute also showed these waves aren't confined to the open Atlantic, with giant waves occurring in sheltered waters, including off the Connemara coast this winter. 'The largest wave ever recorded in Galway Bay occurred during Storm Éowyn, measuring 10.1m in a depth of water of 25m just off the coast of Spiddal village,' Mr Berry said. The Marine Institute's real-time monitoring network provides insight into how often — and how close to shore — these extreme waves can appear. Ireland's Atlantic-facing coastline places it at the front line of North Atlantic swell systems, making it one of Europe's most wave-battered regions.
