A Brief History of Fisheries in Canada

AUTHOR(S): Rowshyra A. Castañeda, Colleen M. M. Burliuk, John M. Casselman, Steven J. Cooke, Karen M. Dunmall, L. Scott Forbes, Caleb T. Hasler, Kimberly L. Howland, Jeffrey A. Hutchings, Geoff M. Klein, Vivian M. Nguyen, Michael H. H. Price, Andrea J. Reid, James D. Reist, John D. Reynolds, Alexander Van Nynatten and Nicholas E. Mandrak

CITATION:

Castañeda R.A., C.M.M. Burliuk, J.M. Casselman, S.J. Cooke, K.M. Dunmall, L.S. Forbes, C.T. Hasler, K.L. Howland, J.A. Hutchings, G.M. Klein, V.M. Nguyen, M.H.H. Price, A.J. Reid, J.D. Reist, J.D. Reynolds, A. Van Nynatten, and N.E. Mandrak. 2020. A Brief History of Fisheries in Canada. Fisheries 45(6):303–318. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.10449

INTRODUCTION:

Having the longest coastlines in the world and some of the largest freshwater ecosystems, Canada has a rich history of exploitation and stewardship of its marine and freshwater fisheries resources. For thousands of years prior to European settlement, Indigenous peoples across what is now Canada utilized and managed marine and freshwater fisheries that underpinned food systems, cultural practices, and pre-colonization economies (Berkes 1990). The earliest exploitation of Canadian fisheries by Europeans was by the Spanish and Portuguese fishing for Atlantic Cod Gadus morhua in the 15th century (Hutchings and Myers 1995). The importance of fisheries in Canada is highlighted by the enactment of the Fisheries Act, one of Canada’s first acts of legislation passed in 1868, one year after Confederation (Fisheries Act 1985). The purpose of the Fisheries Act is to ensure federal management and control of fisheries and the protection and conservation of fishes and fish habitat (Fisheries Act, Section 2.1). In the 1970s, the Fisheries Act was strengthened to protect all fishes and their habitats, and, in 2012, it was weakened to only protect commercial, recreational, or Aboriginal fisheries (Hutchings and Post 2013). Amendments to protect all fishes and fish habitats, strengthening the Fisheries Act once again, were passed in Bill C-68 (2019).

FULL TEXT – Castañeda et al.