Feeding the Future: Rebuild Capelin and Cod to Revive Atlantic Fisheries

Press Release

April 8, 2025

Oceana Canada Urges Federal Government to Pause Capelin Fishery and Reduce Northern Cod Quota to Protect Ocean Ecosystems and Coastal Communities

Media contacts: Vaishali Dassani, Oceana Canada, vdassani@oceana.ca, 647-294-3335;
Angela Pinzon, Pilot PMR, angela.pinzon@pilotpmr.com, 647-295-0517

Halifax, Mi’kma’ki, traditional, unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People: Over the past week, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) met with representatives from the fishing industry, Indigenous rights holders, scientists, and environmental groups, including Oceana Canada, to discuss upcoming management measures for two important stocks: historically overfished and depleted capelin and struggling, iconic northern cod (NAFO area 2J3KL).

For years, fisheries mismanagement has overlooked a critical fact: neither capelin nor cod has experienced significant growth to healthy levels since 2017. Oceana Canada is urging DFO to bring back healthy fisheries by following science, law, and policy. This must start with this year’s management decisions. Below, Oceana Canada outlines what is needed to rebuild these vital populations.

Topline:

Capelin remains depleted at just 16% of its pre-collapse biomass and must be rebuilt to support ocean health, marine life, and coastal communities. The 2024 biomass index, which tracks age-two capelin, showed stock growth, coinciding with the absence of a fishery in 2022 due to a lack of market demand. This marked the first break from fishing since 1994, as the roe fishery targeting egg-bearing females did not take place. However, fishing resumed in 2023 and 2024, and the stock is now at risk of dropping dangerously close to its limit reference point — the threshold below which serious harm occurs.

Northern cod, a main predator of capelin, remains depleted in a cautious state, and is struggling to rebuild. While there are uncertainties in the new assessment model, the trend is clear: cod stocks continue to stagnate and decline, partly due to the lack of their primary food, capelin. Northern cod can’t recover without capelin, yet current management ignores this fundamental link.

Canada has the tools to rebuild both stocks and manage them together — if they are applied. For example, two other cod stocks (southern Newfoundland and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence) are on a recovery path with new rebuilding plans that set management objectives. In contrast, northern cod remains in crisis, with no targets or harvest decision rules. Managing for decline is not a recovery plan, it’s a slow-motion economic failure. A smart, resilient seafood future starts with managing for growth.

Next Steps:

As a participant in DFO’s 2J3KL Capelin Advisory Committee and Groundfish Advisory Committee for northern cod, Oceana Canada recommends:

• Pause the capelin fishery and reduce the northern cod quota until rebuilding measures are put in place.
• Establish healthy thresholds and biomass targets, in line with the Fisheries Act.
• Set annual harvest rules to enable predictable fishing that supports rebuilding.
• Immediately add capelin to the Fish Stock Provisions of the Fisheries Act.
• Implement modern fisheries monitoring protocols for both stocks, consistent with DFO’s Fishery Monitoring Policy.

Critical Quotes:

“Capelin are too important to continue to be managed by quota rollovers and the outdated assumption that the population cannot recover. Capelin hold cultural significance as food for people during the annual capelin roll, draw in humpback whales that support eco-tourism operators, and provide sustenance to the bird colonies that dot the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Capelin is everyone’s fish — and therefore everyone’s responsibility,” said Jack Daly, Marine Scientist, Oceana Canada.

“The future of Canada’s northern cod fishery and its place in the global seafood market hinges on rebuilding capelin. DFO’s own science confirms that a lack of capelin is the biggest barrier to northern cod recovery. If we want abundant cod and a resilient seafood industry, we must break from failed management practices and commit to rebuilding capelin and cod populations. The choice is clear: restore capelin, or risk losing cod for good,” said Rebecca Schijns, Fishery Scientist, Oceana Canada.

What We Don’t Know:

Capelin and northern cod lack upper stock reference points to define a healthy population size, as well as biomass targets, harvest decision rules, and other science-based indicators essential for informed decision-making and rebuilding efforts. Without these tools, DFO continues to manage capelin in the dark for more than three decades. Previous decisions about cod harvests did not follow scientific advice or meet policy and regulatory requirements, leaving the fishing industry without a clear path forward.

Big Numbers:

• Capelin has been depleted for the last 30 years. The population is at just 16% of its historical abundance.
• 84% of Newfoundland and Labrador residents support pausing the commercial capelin fishery to let the population grow. 82% agree that the federal government should be doing more to protect and manage fish populations like capelin that feed large ocean ecosystems (April 2023 survey).
• In 2024, a 32-year commercial moratorium on northern cod was lifted, and the Canadian fishing quota was increased by 38.5% to 18,000 tonnes. This coincided with a new cod assessment method and lowering the limit reference point.
• Cod experienced a small population boost around 2017 but has since stalled at insufficient levels, with spawning stock biomass hovering between 300,000 and 600,000 tonnes — roughly one-third of what it was in the early 1960s, with no improvement in sight. Research suggests northern cod could recover in 11 years, generating 16 times more jobs and $233 million in economic activity.

Oceana Canada was established as an independent charity in 2015 and is part of the largest international advocacy group dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana Canada has successfully campaigned to ban single-use plastics, end the shark fin trade, make rebuilding depleted fish populations the law, improve the way fisheries are managed and protect marine habitat. We work with civil society, academics, fishers, Indigenous Peoples and governments to return Canada’s formerly vibrant oceans to health and abundance. By restoring Canada’s oceans, we can strengthen our communities, reap greater economic and nutritional benefits, and protect our future. Find out more at Oceana.ca.

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