Conservation betrayed.

Even while working within ICNAF, Canada and other coastal nations adopted a more aggressive role to claim and manage the fish stocks in the waters off their shores. Canada extended its territorial sea to 12 miles in 1970 and it unilaterally declared a 200-mile economic zone in 1977 after the Third Law of the Sea Conference failed to reach an agreement on the rights of coastal nations. Although Canada claimed jurisdiction over most of the fish stocks on the east coast, the continental shelf extended beyond the 200-mile limit and several important stocks remained outside Canada's control.

Though the 200-mile limit and a new regulatory regime were intended to conserve and restore fish stocks, they often resulted in a larger domestic fishing fleets. Consequently, there was a dramatic increase in Canadian groundfish catches after 1977, following a reduction in foreign fishing. Canada's share of the catch reached 73% in 1979, up by more than 21% over the 1977 level. In Newfoundland, the number of registered fishers had increased by 41%, registered vessels by 23%, and the total catch by 27% by 1981. In fact, Canadian fish processing companies had begun lining up before the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as early as 1974 with proposals to charter foreign vessels in anticipation of the 200-mile limit and/or increased quotas resulting from ICNAF decisions.

Even as the yields reached an historic high on the east coast in 1986, the World Commission on Environment and Development, the Brundtland Commission, warned that the world's oceans were in trouble as overfishing threatened most of the familiar fish stocks. In fact, Canadian scientists advised the government of Canada in 1980 to implement a total ban on fishing capelin and cod on the Grand Banks. The advice was not implemented at that time. Moreover, some members of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), formed in 1979 to replace ICNAF, were dissatisfied with their quotas inside Canada's 200-mile zone. They turned to the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks outside the 200-mile limit and registered their vessels in NON-NAFO countries to avoid following international rules. The areas outside Canada's jurisdiction were important spawning and nursery grounds for a variety of species. Between 1986 and 1991 NON-NAFO vessels allegedly caught more than 200,000 tonnes of fish in these areas. Moreover, from 1986 to 1992, the European Union set quotas for itself, and its reported catches were five times the NAFO quota.

Foreign fishing fleets surely played an important role in the devastation of the cod stocks, but Canada must also share a portion of the blame. While Canada criticized the overfishing by foreign fleets, it also ignored warnings from both its own scientists and an independent review of the northern cod stocks indicating that the resource was in trouble and fishing should be reduced. Canada and other NAFO member states maintained their quotas, fearing the massive unemployment that would have resulted from shutting down the industry. By 1992, with the survival of many of the fish stocks in serious question, the Canadian government initiated major quota reductions that effectively closed much of the fishing industry in eastern Canada. In 1994, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans introduced the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act which empowered the Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers to board and arrest foreign vessels that violated conservation measures. NAFO eventually agreed to a partial ban on some stocks, but as the Canadian arrest of the Spanish trawler in 1995 demonstrates, some fishing nations are still uncommitted to the principle of sustainable development.