Source:
The Telegram
Date published:
Mon, 2011-08-08
A recent article appearing in your paper "East Coast cod stocks slowly returning to normal," July 28, failed to acknowledge a major contributing factor to the recovery of groundfish on the eastern Scotian Shelf.
Commencing in 1987, after many protests from fishers and fishing communities and the collapse of haddock stocks in that area, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans closed an offshore zone south and east of Halifax to all bottom trawling.
That area is now known as the Haddock Box.
It encompasses over 4,000 nautical square miles of what has been identified as groundfish spawning grounds.
In 1994, shortly after the introduction of the cod moratorium, that closure was extended to include fishing activity from all gear types.
