Research Document - 2003/041

Elements of a precautionary risk-management framework for Canadian cod stocks

By Shelton, P.A., Rice, J.C., and Cadigan, N.G.

Abstract

We describe the elements of a risk-management framework for implementing the precautionary approach on Gadoid stocks off Canada's east coast. The need for such an approach is very evident at the present time. Seven out of the ten east coast cod stocks collapsed as a result of overfishing in the 1980s and early 1990s. Fisheries reopened on three of these stocks in 1997/98 despite a lack of scientific evidence for any significant recovery (northern cod, northern Gulf cod and southern Gulf cod) and there is now evidence that these fisheries, although small relative to historic catches, are being pursued at unsustainable levels. What seems, in part, to be delaying implementation of the precautionary approach is the lack of a clearly articulated framework that takes into account limits to overexploitation, scientific uncertainty in the state of the resource and rules for taking the appropriate actions. The current depressed state of most cod stocks in Atlantic Canada and the realization that groundfish stocks in general are very susceptible to impaired productivity, gives this undertaking both momentum and a sense of urgency.

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