Are there lessons to be learned from cod?

Yes... I realize it's a different critter with a vastly different life history. Particularly the spawning and rearing habitats the fish depend upon BEFORE their oceanic phase.

But there are similarities. Tremendous fishing power in the fleets.... inability to recruit a viable biomass of spawners for many stocks/substocks.

You decide...

Attended a presentation by a CSIRO scientist recently about various fisheries issues. One thing mentioned almost in passing was that knocking populations way down may, does, and can reduce resiliency. Essentially, some species will not be able to recover because the population got too small.

The ecosystem establishes a new level. One example she used was Atlantic Lobster. Apparently, overfishing other species has freed up the pressure on them, so we now have lots of bugs.

I have often used the example of coho response to pinks. The coho are "sustainable" at harvests ranging from 1-8000. The level you get is directly tied to how many pinks spawn.

Another is when Japanese whaling in the 50s (obviously) took away Killer Whale food-the transients. So, they switched to other things which ultimately included Sea Otter (lots of fiber, no fat). Loss of those otters freed up the sea urchin who then ate the kelp that had been habitat for fish. The lesson? Something we did 50 years ago set in motion the problems today.

a cool little book on this ' Cod' by mark kurlansky...quick read...