Thank you for the question.
We believe the impact will be limited. As you mentioned, there's some level of interaction between the northern cod stock in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. However, according to all the scientific studies that have been done, these interactions are very limited. They don't affect the stock assessments and the management measures. These two processes are entirely separate.
The situation is somewhat different for subdivision 3Ps cod stock, located south of Newfoundland. In this case, it is a known stock with considerable migration between the various adjacent regions, including Newfoundland and Labrador. Research, tagging and genetics are under way to better quantify the interactions between these two stocks.
In summary, we don't believe that the reopening of the cod fishery will have an impact on the northern gulf, but it could have an impact on southern Newfoundland, where scientific work is under way.