Oceana audit says little progress in Canada's fishery management over last five years

Canada

Published Nov 17, 2021

Tridge summary

A new report says Canadian fisheries management has "fallen short" over the last five years, with nearly one in five fish stocks still "critically depleted." More than 80 per cent of the critically depleted stocks lack rebuilding plans to restore them to healthy levels, says the fifth annual audit report released Tuesday by Oceana Canada, an independent charity dedicated to ocean conservation. Robert Rangeley, the advocacy group's science director, called that percentage "extraordinarily high."

Original content

"We have a challenge in our oceans where we are not managing them effectively," Rangeley said in a recent interview. "There's no sense of urgency and we are not delivering on commitments." Oceana Canada's audit investigated 194 Canadian fish stocks and listed 33 in critical condition and the health of 71 as uncertain. The report said the health status of a third of the stocks remains uncertain because of insufficient data — leaving the federal Fisheries Department operating "mostly in the dark" as it makes critical decisions on fishing quotas. Rangeley said there is another pressing issue that needs to be accounted for: a changing climate. "We have this increasing pressure of climate change and we don't know what the vulnerability of many of these stocks are to (that)," he said. The report noted that the status of about two dozen stocks changes each year. And while species such as deepwater redfish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence have steadily improved, others, like North Coast Haida ...

Source: Castanet