Before the cod moratorium in 1992, inshore fishers caught fish during the summer and drew unemployment insurance payments in the winter (Bone 2002).
The Northern Cod has given Newfoundland its communities, often deliberately sited on the most exposed headland, and almost every aspect of Newfoundland culture, including the language, music and humour. For the people, these harsh and barren places are an ecological necessity culminating in a powerful, self-directing sense of home. For centuries of small boat fisheries of the East Coast provided a sustainable approach, a way of life that ensured the fish would continue in plentiful supply. Simple technology - long lines of baited hooks, inshore traps and small nets - limited the catch and resulted in little waste.
That began to change in the 1950's when modern fishing technology and expanding markets for seafood combined to start increasing the catch. Powerful new boats equipped with radar, electronic navigation systems and sonar allowed crews to follow the fish right to their spawning grounds. At first the big trawlers came mainly from Europe, but Canadians, often with government subsidies, adopted the new technologies. Boats could now fish year round, day and night, even in ice and at great depths. There was no place the fish could hide. Along with the desirable species, such as cod and haddock, the nets also swept up many non-commercial species, or commercial fish so young they should be left in the ocean to reproduce. In Atlantic Canada, the trawler fleet was reported to have dragged its nets over 30 000 square kilometres, or 15 per cent, of Canada's Continental Shelf each year (LeBlanc 1997). Leslie Harris, of St. John's, said that less than one-third of the fish caught was actually landed and the rest was dumped. She confirmed the worst teetering on the brink of disaster. Dr. Harris, head of the Northern Cod Review Panel, called the modern fishing technology, "the greatest killing machine ever invented" (LeBlanc 1997).