Hamilton:

 Canada has lifted a three-decade moratorium on commercial cod fishing, but there are signs Atlantic stocks have not fully recovered, raising questions about the government's rosy outlook for the sector. The fishery off the coast of the nation's easternmost Newfoundland province had been a major economic driver for centuries, providing livelihoods for local and European fisherman.

Last year, the largest vessels in the offshore fleet set out to sea with a quota to catch 18,000 tons of fish -- a far cry from the 120,000 tons authorized just months before the moratorium and the 250,000 tons fished annually in the late 1980s.

Why the cod population has failed to recover despite a long moratorium is the million-dollar question, said Tyler Eddy, a researcher at Memorial University in Newfoundland, pointing to a number of factors such as changing water temperatures.

It became a symbol of overfishing and poor management, however, when Canada imposed a commercial fishing moratorium in 1992 after nearly all of the fish disappeared, leaving tens of thousands in the sector unemployed. The moratorium was initially ordered to last two years, but it would only be lifted in 2024 as fish stocks struggled to bounce back.

Other fish in danger:

The recovery of cod also depends on the abundance of capelin, a small forage fish that is one of its main food sources and whose stock also collapsed in the early 1990s.

Its population has still not recovered and is expected to decline further this year, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which added this will limit the growth potential of the cod stock.

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