Fisheries management in Atlantic Canada

This paper provides an overview of fisheries in Atlantic Canada and examines in detail the two most important and widespread sectors, groundfish and lobsters, highlighting initiatives undertaken in the wake of the collapse of the groundfish stocks in the early 1990s. Two key features contributed to this collapse: over-reliance on quota management and an adversarial relationship between fishers and government. Among the new initiatives detailed in the paper are co-management, community quotas ‘Conservation Harvesting Plans’ and the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council.