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Comment by morkalork

2 years ago

Probably a dumb question but why hasn't cod rebound on the east coast? The fishing moratorium has been in place for decades now, shouldn't the population have increased exponentially since then?

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morkalork

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alecthomas  2 years ago

This paper [1] (PDF) indicates it is likely a complex interaction between multiple parts of the ecosystem. One example is that large cod are apex predators, competing with seals and when those cod were removed, seal populations increased, and predation on small cod increased correspondingly.

[1] https://oceansfirstjournal.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/ocean...

  • morkalork  2 years ago

    Thanks, that was surprisingly interesting. It also talks about capelin the sibling comment mentioned.

pvaldes  2 years ago

To speak in simple terms: Cods were let go. The dynamics of the team changed. Ecosystem hired lobsters to fill the gap. Cods will not return because the former positions aren't available anymore.