Stakeholders in the Northern cod fishery improvement project (FIP) recently had its first meeting since the long-closed fishery reopened in June 2024 amid signs the fishery has strongly recovered.
Canada’s Northern cod fishery was once among the largest in the world, but a collapse of the cod population in the Northern Atlantic caused it to be closed in 1992. After multiple decades an industry-led FIP was formed in 2015 to help restore the stock, which ultimately succeeded in getting the Northern cod fishery reopened in 2024.
In 2024, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) determined the stock had recovered enough to support an 18,000 metric ton (MT) quota for the year, and in May stakeholders of the FIP met adjacent to Seafood Expo Global – which ran from 6 to 8 May in Barcelona, Spain – to review progress and continue planning for the future.
An array of stakeholders involving the fishery, including Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP); Marks & Spencer; Youngs Seafoods; Thistle Seafoods; New England Seafood and WWF from the United Kingdom; Sysco France; Cornic-Novamer; Cite Marine and Picard from France; High Liner Foods from Canada/United States; and producer organizations in Canada – including Ocean Choice International, Icewater Seafoods, and the Atlantic Groundfish Council – representatives from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Marine Stewardship Council all participated in the latest meeting.
According to a release from the FIP, the spawning stock biomass of Northern cod has increased dramatically from last year – a positive sign that reopening the fishery was the right thing to do. The DFO’s 2025 assessment estimated the biomass is currently at 524,000 MT, up 60 percent over the number it reached in 2024...
