Apr. 30, 2012 In a rapid communication just published in the
Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, biologist
Douglas Swain of the Gulf Fisheries Centre and Robert Mohn,
emeritus scientist, at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography
present findings that suggest the delay in recovery of Atlantic
cod on the eastern Scotian Shelf could be attributed to
increased predation by grey seals or other governing factors and
not the effect of forage fish as previously thought. "Swain and
Mohn provide provocative scientific evidence challenging the
commonly held belief that species interactions with forage fish
have impaired the recovery of Atlantic cod on the eastern
Scotian Shelf during the 15-year fishing moratorium," says Rolf
D. Vinebrooke, Co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries
and Aquatic Sciences. "They report a lack of a direct
relationship between forage fish biomass and cod recruitment
rates, suggesting that density-dependent effects of competition
and predation by forage fish cannot therefo