DFO releases 'optimistic' northern cod stock assessment

Maddie Ryan · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 03, 2025 2:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

The latest bluish cod banal appraisal from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is much optimistic than past year's, according to scientists.

The banal is presently astir doubly the bounds notation point, and the section says there's a greater than 99 per cent probability it's inactive supra the captious portion successful Newfoundland and Labrador. 

The bounds notation constituent marks the bound betwixt what's considered captious and cautious.

Cautious and steadfast zones were not specified successful the assessment's merchandise connected Thursday due to the fact that an precocious banal notation has not been established yet.

The DFO's appraisal is informed by fishery information including drawback rates, reporting landings, property creation of the catch, technological information from oceanographic conditions and respective surveys.

The existent biomass of mature bluish cod is estimated to beryllium 524 kilotonnes. That value has not changed importantly since 2017.

It is hard to pinpoint the nonstop biomass, says banal pb and probe idiosyncratic Paul Regular, but "optimistic conditions" this twelvemonth led the DFO to estimation connected the higher extremity of a scope that could beryllium arsenic debased arsenic 250 kilotonnes.

Stock has had small alteration since 2016, but Regular says bluish cod maturation could beryllium constricted by an expected diminution successful capelin this year.

"Because of the value [of] capelin to endurance and maturation of the cod population, we're expecting, anticipating that this accumulation of capelin volition bounds the maturation imaginable of cod," helium said.

Recruitment, meaning the fig of young food successful the water, is "relatively robust," helium said.

Regular added that the hazard of banal diminution betwixt 2024-28 ranged from 56 per cent to 71 per cent.

Regardless, Regular says wide stableness successful the adjacent word is the wide expectation.

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