Grant: Alliance Grants

The Northern Cod (Gadus morhua) complex off Newfoundland and Labrador is well known for having supported the largest fishery in the world. In 1990, the fishery catch in this complex was ~246,000 tons and was valued at $134M. The complex, however, suffered two collapses, and despite sustained efforts to restore it, including a fishing moratorium in 1992, it remains in a cautious zone. Recent assessments by Fisheries and Oceans suggest that the stock complex has not grown since 2016 despite continued low fishing mortality. In 2022, this cod fishery was valued at ~$22M and was estimated to contribute up to ~30% of some harvesters' annual fishing income. In 2016, the Atlantic Groundfish Council (AGC) and the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP), organizations representing longstanding harvest and processing companies based in Newfoundland and Labrador, created the Northern Cod Acoustic Tracking (NCAT) research program to identify and address gaps in our understanding of the Northern Cod complex, with the goal of improving long-term management of the stock. So far, the program has collected large-scale genomic and acoustic telemetry detection data, which are in a need for detailed analysis. This project aims to use these as well as incoming data to integrate both genomic and telemetry information to understand the genomic bases of migratory patterns in cod. Results from this project will be shared with AGC and other stakeholders and will become publicly available through peer-reviewed publications. This work will inform whether finer-scale spatial fisheries management may be applied to the stock and facilitate further research that aims to improve the Northern Cod Assessment Model (NCAM).