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Electronic Green Journal

In 1992, the once abundant cod stocks off the coast of Newfoundland collapsed and a moratorium was placed upon fishing them. This paper provides a review of a range of social and political factors that were implicated in the collapse of the stocks, including overfishing, government mismanagement, and the disregard of scientific uncertainty. The collapse is considered in terms of the null of null null of resource exploitation, and the inevitability of overuse that the theory implies. The conclusion is drawn that the collapse was not necessarily inevitable, and that in similar situations, more input is needed from a variety of stakeholders in the management of an environmental resource, so that more of the social factors at work may be accounted for. On July 2, 1992, the Canadian Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans at the time, the Honourable John Crosbie, announced a moratorium on fishing for northern cod in the waters surrounding the province of Newfoundland. This supposedly short-term solution has lasted until the present time, with minor exceptions of food fisheries for personal consumption. Some 19,000 fishers and plant workers were directly affected and up to 20,000 other jobs were lost or harmed in the economic backlash (Steele, Andersen & Green, 1992), while for rural Newfoundland it meant that the economic backbone of hundreds of communities where the fishery was the only large employer had been broken. A wide number of social, economic, and environmental factors have been implicated in the collapse of the cod stocks. Drawing primarily on the prolific scholarship on the fishery of a small cadre of sociologists, historians, and political scientists from Memorial University of Newfoundland, this paper reviews a variety of social factors that had input in the scenario, and considers, from the null of the commons theory of resource use, whether the collapse of the stocks was necessarily inevitable. The paper deals solely with social factors that had input in the collapse; more scientific factors such as changes in water temperature and the food chain are not considered here, as the author is not qualified to make an evaluation of these. As well, the vast social and economic impacts that the moratorium has had on Newfoundland's communities is beyond what can be considered here, and could only be done justice in a separate review. The Tragedy of the Commons One of the better-known theories of resource use, which might be applicable to the Newfoundland fishery, is the tragedy of the null theory. The tragedy of the null has been a popular theory in regards to null property since it was first expounded by Garrett Hardin in 1968. As part of this theory, things such as fish, forest, or water resources are seen as common property-resources which can be used by everyone, yet no one truly owns. The tragedy of the null comes in once competition for the resources commences. Hardin based his work on the theorization of 19th century English null grounds by W. F. Lloyd and others (1833, reprinted in part in Hardin, 1968). These theories contended that the cattle raised on the null were weak, and the null themselves denuded of fodder, due to intense overexploitation through competition. The carrying capacity of the null field was of course finite, but each herdsman, seeking to get ahead, constantly increased the number of cattle he owned. Once the full carrying capacity was reached, deterioration occurred, yet the personal gain for each herdsman outweighed the shared loss and damage to the field, so all kept adding to their herds (Hardin, 1968). This kept going until the whole resource collapsed. Hardin called this inevitable collapse the null of the commons, and proposed that it could be applied to any sort of natural resource being exploited. In 1977, Ophuls created a model of a fishery in the tragedy of the null scenario. He suggested that once the critical point was reached, either privatization or collapse would occur. …

The Newfoundland Cod Stock Collapse: A Review and Analysis of Social Factors