1. Natural resources
FISHING

2. Fishing Canada’s oldest industry
We have the longest coastline in the world
We have more lakes than the rest of the world combined (60% of all lakes are in Canada)
80% of catch is exported to 80 countries
$6.5 billion in fish &
seafood exports in 2015
11.5 ft long sturgeon, 880 lbs. Caught in the Fraser River.

3. 3 Categories of Fish Groundfish Are caught near the ocean floor
Category
Description
Examples
Groundfish
Are caught near the ocean floor
Cod, halibut, haddock
Pelagic fish
Are caught near the surface
Salmon, tuna, herring
Shell fish
Animals without backbones & have protective shells
Lobster, shrimp, oysters, scallops

4. Definitions
Fishery: a place where fish are caught for commercial purposes
Inshore fishery: commercial fishing done close to shore in small, independently owned boats
Offshore fishery: commercial fishing done farther from shore in larger company-owned boats

5. Value of Our commercial Fisheries, 2015
Pacific
Inland
Atlantic
Total (Canada)
Number of registered fishing vessels 2
2,396
114
15,400
17,910
Total volume of landings (metric tonnes)
129,670
27,965
687,967
845,602
Total value of landings
$355,833, 000
$64,168, 000
$2,840,228, 000
$3,260,229,000

6. Trawling One of the most common methods of fishing in the world.
It involves towing one or more trawl nets behind a boat or in between two boats.
Nets differ by their mesh size.

7. Longlines Set horizontally on the ocean floor or set near the surface
Tens of kilometres long and carry thousands of hooks.
Baited hooks are attached to the longline by short lines called snoods that hang off the mainline.

8. Dredging
Towed dredges are used to collect shellfish such as scallops from the sea floor.
The dredge is towed along the bottom until it is full, then lifted onto the boat and the contents tipped out.

9. Problem with trawling and longlines
Bycatch : catching the wrong thing in your nets
Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles caught by accident every year
Over 300,000 small whales, dolphins, and porpoises dying each year from entanglement in fishing gears
Millions of sharks are caught every year

10. Problem with dredging
They are incredibly damaging to the seabed,. They destroy whole ecosystems and coral reefs
This is a picture of a reef that has been badly damaged by scallop dredgers

11. Whaling in Canada
Ban on commercial whaling in 1986 (Japan, Norway, Iceland still do it)
Canada allows its northern Indigenous groups to hunt whales on a small scale

12. Grand Banks
Historically the Grand Banks have been one of the world's richest fishing grounds.
Most parts of the Grand Banks are shallow - less than 50 m deep
Light can reach the sea bed and favours reproduction of sea life.
Several currents meet here and there is an upswelling of minerals & nutrients

13. East Coast Fishery Decline in Atlantic fishery since 1990
Decline due to:
Overfishing by Canadians
Improved technology
Foreign factory ships
Climate change

14. Factory Ships
The nets of the giant trawlers from took unprecedented amounts of fish, which they would quickly process and deep-freeze.
The trawlers worked around the clock, in all but the very worst weather.
In an hour they would haul up to 200 tonnes of fish; twice the amount a typical 16th century ship would catch in an entire season.

15. Cod Timeline 1497 - English explorer John Cabot reported lots of cod
1600s s - Newfoundland makes lots of $$$ from cod
the first factory-freezer trawler revolutionized fishing
cod stocks were in desperate shape. Governments worldwide responded with huge subsidies to assist fishermen.
in response to declining fish stocks, most countries passed a 200-mile fishing limit.
1992 -a moratorium on fishing was declared, putting 35,000 fishermen out of work.
Atlantic cod populations were assigned endangered status
Canada allows a limited cod fishery but with very restrictive catch limits

16. Capture of the atlantic cod, in million tons

17. 1992 cod moratorium
Under police protection, Fisheries Minister John Crosbie announced a moratorium on cod fishing
This ended a 500 year industry
A mob of angry fishermen had tried to force their way into the hotel ballroom where he was making his speech, and Crosbie was forced to make a hasty retreat.
This Island That We Cling To The National July, 2012 (skip to 2:00-9:00)

18. What happened to the Cod?
STOP AT 8:17

19. Consequences of the collapse
40,000 people lost their jobs and had to go on welfare (12% of province’s labour force)
Thousands of Newfoundlanders moving out to Alberta to find work
Many fishermen learned how to be shellfish fishermen instead
In the next decade, the province's population dropped by a record 10%

21. Some are finding alternatives
Tony Doyle, a sixth-generation fisherman from Bay de Verde, Nfld. fishes snow crab because of the cod moratorium

22. Tragedy of the Commons
If nobody owns the resource and everyone is allowed to use it, then people just use it as much as they want. Just use it as much as you can before someone else does or you will miss out on the bounty.
If people are able to organize private property rights or work together through communal ownership, then they can use the resource for longer.

23. Newfoundland’s northern cod making a comeback
Harvesters know the value of science-based policy
Cod stocks off eastern Newfoundland and Labrador continue to slowly rebound, but are still in the “critical zone.”
Union representing fishermen
and plant workers, however,
wants to immediately expand
the relatively small commercial
cod fishery

24. West Coast Fishing Industry

25. Sport Fishing
Kenora, Ont..
Saskatchwan
Arctic Char, Nunavut

26. aquaculture
Fish raised either on land in tanks or in cornered-off sections of the ocean
“Fish farming”

27. Wild Fish PROS CONS Contain fewer toxins than farmed fish
Better taste (debateable)
CONS
Harvesting can cause destruction of ecosystems and sea floor
Result in unintended bycatch
Less control over ocean pollution

28. Farmed Fish Pros: Cheaper Price
Higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids than wild fish, farmers can control their diets
Reduce pressure on wild stock
High yields
Atlantic salmon farm

29. Farmed Fish
Cons:
High concentration can lead to growth of disease and parasites
To control disease, farmed fish are often given antibiotics