What happened to Newfoundland's cod?
Toronto Star, 6 July 2003

Ten years after a moratorium on fishing northern cod was declared, scientists are still baffled by the disappearance of the Atlantic stock.

UBC Fisheries Prof. Daniel Pauly says even with the gaps in Canadian fisheries research, it's not hard to hit on one common-sense conclusion: Sending ships out to fish for depleted stocks is only going to make things worse.

Globally, Pauly foresees a fishing industry killing off one species and then going after the next, until oceans are inhabited by nothing but jellyfish. The only prescription for allowing stocks to rebuild is to stop fishing.

"We have this stupidity of every time the stock makes a little sign of showing up, we go after it," he says.

"So there is a sport fishery, a sentinel fishery, all kinds of little fisheries. The stock is never going to rebuild, ever.

"It's like your job is to build a garden and every time you see something growing, you go out with your lawnmower. Everything that sticks up will be taken up."

"Nothing that we know contradicts the notion that if you fish too much, the stock goes down. And if you want it to rebuild, you don't fish it. That is elementary - it's not rocket science. And if you can't do that, you might as well pack and go home."