Beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries, soon after the rediscovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, Europeans came to the realization that the best place for cod fishing was off the coast of the new found land of Newfoundland, in a region called the Grand Banks. Early explorer John Cabot noted in 1497 that "the sea there is full of fish that can be taken not only with nets but with fishing-baskets." Now, over five centuries since John Cabot made this observation, Cabot must be corrected. The sea was full of fish.
After World War II, the Grand Banks entered into a period of factory farming that tripled the production of the cod lode, but would also go on to doom it. Beginning in the late 1960s, the overfishing of the region caused a severe dropoff in the region's cod production. By 1992, the biomass of Northern Cod had fallen to 1% of previous levels, posing a risk of total destruction of the cod stocks in the region. Because of this, the Canadian government instituted a moratorium on cod fishing and placed substantial controls on fishing in the region.
The plight of the North Atlantic cod is a sad one and there is no doubt that humans are to blame. But new evidence has come out showing the region's cod were faced with not just human fishermen, but human climate change. As reported by the Washington Post, a new study has found evidence of a causation link between the warming of the waters off Newfoundland, which between 2004 and 2013 warmed by .23 degrees Celsius per year, and the decline of fishing stock.
The warming temperatures were harmful to the development of larval and juvenile cod, though the exact relationship is unknown. Thus, the warming temperatures reduced the size of the adult cod population in the region after a short delay and already high fishing quotas that ignored the impact of global warming caused the ultimate downfall of the cod in the area.
What's more interesting is how this effect is interconnected with developments around the world and even in the same region. Specifically in the Atlantic, the warming of the ocean has caused both the northward movement of the warmer and saltier Gulf Stream as well as the slowing of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. This changing of water circulation in the Atlantic has caused some regions, like the Grand Banks, to become substantially warmer and some, like the waters south of Greenland and Iceland, to become substantially colder.
These temperature changes caused huge changes to the region's environment, like the destruction of cod stock as well as the introduction and thriving of lobster in the Grand Banks, and sends a message to humanity that we not only need to solve global warming, but we need to adapt to many of its changes quickly and hugely. The end of North Atlantic cod is a sign of things to come in fisheries around the world as warming shifts ocean currents and changes the abiotic environment these fish live in.
The plight of the North Atlantic cod is a sad one and there is no doubt that humans are to blame. But new evidence has come out showing the region's cod were faced with not just human fishermen, but human climate change. As reported by the Washington Post, a new study has found evidence of a causation link between the warming of the waters off Newfoundland, which between 2004 and 2013 warmed by .23 degrees Celsius per year, and the decline of fishing stock.
The warming temperatures were harmful to the development of larval and juvenile cod, though the exact relationship is unknown. Thus, the warming temperatures reduced the size of the adult cod population in the region after a short delay and already high fishing quotas that ignored the impact of global warming caused the ultimate downfall of the cod in the area.
What's more interesting is how this effect is interconnected with developments around the world and even in the same region. Specifically in the Atlantic, the warming of the ocean has caused both the northward movement of the warmer and saltier Gulf Stream as well as the slowing of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. This changing of water circulation in the Atlantic has caused some regions, like the Grand Banks, to become substantially warmer and some, like the waters south of Greenland and Iceland, to become substantially colder.
These temperature changes caused huge changes to the region's environment, like the destruction of cod stock as well as the introduction and thriving of lobster in the Grand Banks, and sends a message to humanity that we not only need to solve global warming, but we need to adapt to many of its changes quickly and hugely. The end of North Atlantic cod is a sign of things to come in fisheries around the world as warming shifts ocean currents and changes the abiotic environment these fish live in.