The history of Newfoundland is essentially the history of its fishery. The English and Irish immigrants who settled Newfoundland derived a livelihood solely from the fishery. Most of these people settled along the northeast coast of the Island of Newfoundland, and on the coast of Labrador. Here, from the beginning, they were totally dependent on the annual shoreward migration of Northern Cod.

Their dependence had, by the 1900's created a society, an economy and a political community based on cod. The Newfoundland economy has diversified over the years, but Northern Cod is still as central to the Newfoundland soul as the wheat fields are to Saskatchewan, or the forests and salmon are to British Columbia.

For the past century enormous Northern Cod landings have dominated the Newfoundland fishery, in some years peaking at over 300,000 tons. From 1884 to 1984, Northern Cod was the main source of the rich harvests Newfoundlande

Aside from a few larger centers, in most of these ground fish-dependent coastal regions, every community depends on the fishery. In Newfoundland, the dependence is staggering. Virtually every community depends on the fishery. There are three pulp and paper towns: Corner Brook, Grand Falls and Stephenville. There is one mining town: Labrador City. There is one town based on hydroelectricity: Churchill Falls. There are a handful of small farming communities, like Codroy, and there are several administrative and business centers, like St. John's and Gander. Almost all of the other 700 communities in the province depend directly upon the fishery. Indirectly, even the administrative and business centers depend on the fishery, as they exist in large measure to provide services to the fishery-dependent communities. The loss of the ground fish fishery, for a period of years, can trigger the collapse of whole coastal areas in Atlantic Canada. For Newfoundland, this could threaten the whole economic and social structure of the province.

Canadian scientists have been studying fish stocks since the turn of the century and have been making assessments for 20 years now. They have continually improved the process as new information and new equipment became available.

This historic dependency, based on centuries of fishing, establishes for the adjacent coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador a compelling and prior claim on the present and future benefits of Northern Cod. This claim has been nurtured by the very evolution of our settlement pattern, much the same as other regions of Atlantic Canada have developed an historic exploitation of the fish stocks in their adjacent waters.

As a first step, we will expand studies of northern cod. We will involve the industry as never before in our scientific re

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