Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this exercise.
I've been the co-chair of the marine fishes subcommittee in COSEWIC since 2010. In fact, the first report that I presented to that committee was on Atlantic cod. That was the last report that COSEWIC did on the species. Before that, I was a scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and I have had experience on the east and west coasts. On the east coast, I did research in stock assessments on Atlantic cod. I chaired the groundfish subcommittee of the Canadian Atlantic Fisheries Scientific Advisory Committee from 1991 to 1993, and participated in several Atlantic zonal cod stock assessments meetings.
With regard to COSEWIC and what COSEWIC has been doing with Atlantic cod, the current format of COSEWIC was established under section 14 of the federal Species at Risk Act. Its assessments form the scientific foundation for the list of wildlife species at risk under that legislation. COSEWIC's mission is to assess the conservation status of species that may be at risk in Canada, and to report the results of the assessments, including reasons and uncertainties, to the Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, and to the Canadian public. COSEWIC uses the best available scientific, aboriginal, and community knowledge to assess species. The assessment process is independent and transparent.
The Species at Risk Act, or SARA, recognizes that conservation of biological diversity requires protection of taxonomic entities below the species level. With this in mind, COSEWIC developed guidelines for recognizing separate populations that are both discrete and evolutionarily significant relative to other populations. Discreteness refers to reproductive isolation caused by physical barriers or behaviour, and evolutionary significance refers to adaptation within discrete populations to differing environmental conditions in their respective habitats. A prime example of this is adaptation to preglacial isolation. If such discrete and significant populations are lost, they would likely not be replaced through natural dispersion. COSEWIC uses the term designatable unit, abbreviated as DU, for such populations.
Fisheries management also recognizes that population structure and species are divided into stocks for management purposes. These stocks are thought to be self-contained, with limited movement between stocks. However, fish stocks tend to be less discrete than DUs, and therefore less likely to develop evolutionarily significant adaptations. In the case of Atlantic cod, where both stocks and DUs have been defined, stocks have been combined into DUs, and no stock has been split between DUs.
That's a bit of background to help with what I will give next, which is the timeline of Atlantic cod assessments by COSEWIC. These have been done three times. In 1998, the species was considered a single unit and it was assessed as special concern. While there were considerable declines in both abundance and distribution of various Atlantic cod stocks at the time, the species was still highly abundant across its Canadian range. It did not meet the criteria for threatened, but it was considered to be special concern, because if conditions persisted it might become threatened.
It should be noted that at the time, research on genetic and adaptive variability among Atlantic cod populations in Canada was in its early stage, and the available evidence did not support establishment of multiple DUs. The assessment was done again in 2003, and Atlantic cod was assessed as four DUs. This change in population structure reflected a considerable amount of new information on variability in genetic discreteness and adaptive characteristics of the species throughout its Canadian range.
The Newfoundland and Labrador DU included the area from Cape Chidley in the north, the Labrador coast, and the Grand Bank off eastern Newfoundland. There are three separate cod stocks in this area: the northern Labrador or 2J stock; northern cod, 2J3KL, which is the main interest in this committee, I understand; and the southern Grand Bank cod 3NO.
There was also an Arctic DU, which was restricted to coastal lakes in Frobisher Bay and Cumberland Sound. This isolation from other Atlantic cod, and very special characteristics of its habitat, qualified it as being both discrete and significant relative to other populations.
There is also a Laurentian North DU that include two stocks, St. Pierre Bank and the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, and then a Maritime DU that included five stocks in the Southern gulf of St. Lawrence, Cabot Strait, Eastern Scotian Shelf, Western Scotian Shelf, and the Canadian portion of Georges Bank.
The Newfoundland and Labrador, Laurentian North, and Maritime DUs were distinguished from one another by variation in a number of characteristics indicating discreteness, which comes from genetics and tagging, and significance, which has to do with biological characteristics like age and maturity and also other genetic studies.
The Newfoundland and Labrador DU was assessed as endangered based on an estimated decline in abundance of 97% since the early 1970s, and 99% since the early 1960s. There has been virtually no recovery since the fisheries were closed in 1992 and 1993.
The Canadian government decided not to list the Newfoundland and Labrador DU under SARA, citing management initiatives that were in place under the Fisheries Act that focused on recovery and reducing catch.
Significant native, social, and economic impacts were anticipated related to reductions in other fisheries as the DUs were listed, whereas no mention was made of permitting capture under sections 72 and 73 of SARA, as had been done with both fish species when they were grandfathered under SARA in 2003.
The species was assessed again in 2010. The cod was assessed at that time as six DUs. As was the case in 2003, this change in the number of DUs from four to six resulted from further accumulation of information on population structure and immunity from genetics studies.
What was previously the Arctic DU was split into two, Arctic Lakes and Arctic Marine. The Arctic Marine included marine waters east and southeast of Baffin Island, and these fish seemed to have genetic characteristics more closely related to those of cod in Greenland and eastern Atlantic than to other Canadian cod stocks.
The Maritime DU was split in two—the new Laurentian South DU included the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Cabot Strait, and Eastern Scotian shelf; the new Southern DU included the Western Scotian Shelf and Canadian portion of Georges Bank. These DUs were distinguished by genetics and age of maturity.
The Newfoundland and Labrador DU and the Laurentian North DU were not changed. The Newfoundland and Labrador DU was reassessed as endangered for the same reasons used in 2003. There had been very little change in abundance between the two assessments. The population remained extremely depleted with little sign of recovery. No decision has been made regarding whether the species will be listed under SARA, and it's been six years now since that assessment.
COSEWIC reassesses species at risk every 10 years, and the next Atlantic cod assessment will be in 2020.
Thank you.