The moratorium will take effect immediately and was suppose to continue until the spring of 1994, but as we know today it is still in effect and there is very little fishing of the cod going on.
Since 1990, a devastating decline in the stock of northern cod off the east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, due primarily to ecological factors, has reduced the biomass by half and the spawning biomass by three-quarters. .
If you are an unemployed fishery worker anywhere in Atlantic Canada, you have a serious problem. If you live in a community anywhere in Atlantic Canada that is partially dependent on the ground fish fishery, such as southwestern Nova Scotia or northeastern New Brunswick, your community has a serious problem. If you live in a coastal area such as Quebec's lower north shore or the eastern shore of Nova Scotia, where the whole coastal region is primarily dependent on ground fish, there is a real crisis. This crisis is really compounded, more serious and more threatening, if you live in a province like Newfoundland, where virtually all of the fishing communities are almost entirely dependent on the ground fish fishery. .
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.