Extended fisheries jurisdiction: origins of the current crisis in Atlantic Canadaʹs fisheries

With Canadaʹs Atlantic fisheries in a state of acute crisis because of a severe reduction in groundfish populations, the government is developing strategies to reduce harvesting and processing capacity by 50%. The current difficulties are attributed, at least in part, to excessive overexpansion of the fisheries following the declaration of Extended Fisheries Jurisdiction in 1977. On several occasions in the past, the Canadian government has faced the problem of fishing overcapacity, but on each occasion attempts to reduce employment in the fishery have been stymied. The operative forces are discussed; those which halted ‘downsizing’ in the past still exist.