Heather has a finger on the pulse of the East coast fishery. "They are just about to launch a Commercial Cod Demonstration Farm off the south shore of Newfoundland," she says. It's a joint initiative between the federal and provincial governments and Cook Aquaculture to explore the commercial potential of growing cod.
Cod is a delicious fish that once composed a staple in the European diet. Premier Brian Peckford went to war with Spain over cod and got Canada's protected waters limit expanded to 200 miles, but he fought a losing battle because the fish, it seemed, were gone anyway.
According to Heather, there have been no cod since the collapse of the cod stocks in the 1980s. "There is no commercial cod fishery today," she said. "There is only by-catch [cod caught in the nets with other species]. They set-up this program through the ocean sciences centre, and industry partners are coming into it. Cod have a three year growth cycle, so we'll see in three years how well it works out."
There has never been success growing cod in containment. "Cod loses texture and becomes fatty, and issues like fatty livers come up," she said. "This program has been searching the genetics of the fish to find a better fish to grow in containment. They don't know about the commercial potential of what they are growing yet, but if the cod grow out properly, the commercial potential will be large."
The netpen cod project is occurring in the Coast of Bays regions on the South coast. Heather explains, "Cook Aquaculture has its operations in Atlantic salmon there." Atlantic salmon are grown in the South coast where water temperatures are less prone to extremes of either cold or warm currents. "The blue shell mussel is one of the main aquaculture species in Newfoundland," said Heather, "The other is the Atlantic salmon." There are issues with controlling invasive species such as green crabs and tunicates, which sometimes affect growth and harvesting of farmed mussels.
TAKE THE PULSE
