Legend says when Italian explorer John Cabot discovered Newfoundland he plunged a bucket into the icy cold Atlantic. When he pulled it back into his boat it was filled to the brim with cod fighting to return to the fish infested water.

While Newfoundland experienced centuries of plentiful cod fishing, it came to an abrupt end 25 years ago with the northern cod moratorium.

After decades of overfishing the industry collapsed forcing the cod fishery on the northeast coast of the island to close on July 2, 1992 – leaving tens of thousands of fishermen and processing plant employees out of work.

A quarter of a century later the commercial moratorium is still in affect today.

Dr. Barbara Neis, a university research professor with Memorial University of Newfoundland’s sociology department, said that it was the biggest layoff in Canada’s history with nearly 40,000 people left without work.

“We were all shocked,” said Neis, who has spent her career researching the Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries. “It was like a death in the family.”

A death, according to Neis, that is still felt in the province today.

“This is a multi-generational crisis,” Neis said.

She said that young people from small towns who expected to work in the fisheries had to look elsewhere for employment.

She stated that one of the biggest issues for fishing communities across the province is that there are only a small number of young residents.

“The economic opportunities from the fishery became much more limited in those areas.”

Neis said that a young generation of workers said good-bye to their small coastal communities and headed to western Canada where there were more opportunities.

According to statistics from the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the province’s population declined by 5 per cent five years following the moratorium – a number that has since dropped to 8 per cent today.

Annual Estimates of Population for Canada, Provinces and Territories, from July 1, 1971 to July 1, 2016.  Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency, Aug. 28, 2016.

“You won’t have that kind of community based fishery that we’ve had in the past,” Neis said, worried about the loss of an important aspect of the island’s culture.

Small towns nestled between the rocks and the sea are no longer buzzing with the sounds of fishermen unloading the day’s catch, or women chatting as they gut codfish.
Tom Dooley, the director of Sustainable Fisheries and Ocean Policy, said that the faces of the fishing industry look a lot different then they did 25 years ago.

“The age structure in the industry is quite old,” Dooley said. “It’s actually quite startling.”

Dooley said that the ageing fisherman population is a concern.

“We will probably see people exit the industry,” he added as many fishermen are nearing retirement with few trained workers available to replace them.

He added that northern cod stocks are on the rise, but the province is ten years away from lifting the commercial fishing ban.

While many people in the cod fishery stopped fishing for good, Ron Alcock said that wasn’t an option for him.

Alcock said that he left school when he was in grade seven to become a fisherman like his father. The St. John’s native added that without any formal education it would have been difficult to work anywhere but on the ocean.

He said that following the moratorium he began fishing the low-valued monkfish to make ends meet.

The 58 year-old admits that at times things were tough for him and his family.

He says that after a long career as a fisherman he plans on retiring within the next few years.

“Fishing is not an easy job,” Alcock said. “But I got a lot to be proud of.”

With a small laugh he added “the fishery has been really, really good to me.”

Northern Cod a Failure of Canadian Fisheries Management. Committee Report, Parliament of Canada.