1. Canada’s Commercial Fishery

2. Canada’s Commercial Fishing Industry:
In 2009, over 1 million tonnes of commercial fish was harvested, valued at about $2 billion

3. Types and Locations of Fish
Category
Description
Examples
Groundfish
Eat and Caught near ocean floor
Cod, Pollock, haddock, halibut, redfish
Pelagic Fish
Eat and Caught near the surface.
Salmon, herring, mackerel, tuna
Shellfish
Molluscs and crustaceans.
Shrimp, lobster, oyster, scallop, mussels

4. Mixing of currents stirs up nutrients
East Coast Fishery
Species include:
Cod, Haddock, Lobster
Cod overfished, moratorium in 1992 banned Cod fishing
Grand Banks: used to be one of world’s richest fishing grounds
Why?
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus southeast of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from 80 to 330 feet (24–100 m) in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream here.
The mixing of these waters and the shape of the ocean bottom lifts nutrients to the surface. These conditions helped to create one of the richest fishing grounds in the world.
Shallow water lets sunlight reach bottom allowing phytoplankton (sm. Plant life) to grow
Mixing of currents stirs up nutrients

5. West Coast Fishery Species includes:
Salmon, tuna, shellfish
Salmon overfished. Number of salmon caught declining.

6. Freshwater Fishery
Includes Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, and Great Slave Lake.
About 13 species of fish being harvested commercially including:
Lake trout
northern pike
Pickerel

7. Commercial Fishing Issue:
Overfishing
Simply means catching too many fish
Bycatch is when nets accidently catch small fish or other marine species
The bycatch is simply thrown overboard
Bycatch is often 80 per cent of the stock

8. Commercial Fishing Solutions:
MORATORIUM – when government puts a freeze on fishing (bans all fishing)
QUOTAS – when government reduces the amount of fish being caught

9. Helpful Vocabulary
Moratorium – a ban on all fishing. This is decided by the government.
Fish stocks – the population of fish
DFO – The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Federal Government.
Quota – the amount of fish allowed to be caught by the fishing industry, set by the DFO