In 1992, Canada's cod moratorium put 30,000 Newfoundlanders out of work; 32 years later, crab and shrimp have replaced cod and doubled the catch's value

On July 2, 1992, Canada’s federal government shut down the northern cod fishery off Newfoundland’s coast, the fish that had anchored the island’s economy and culture for nearly 500 years. It was a closure that came virtually overnight, and some 30,000 people lost their jobs in one fell swoop. According to Tyler D. Eddy, a fisheries scientist at Memorial University whose 2026 study, ‘ The changing landscape of Newfoundland fisheries after the cod collapse ,’ tracked Newfoundland's ports and catches through 2023, that one announcement reshaped the island's economy and its coastal towns for the next three decades.

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