Milton d’Eon has been fishing out of West Pubnico, Nova Scotia, for “between 15 and 20 years,” and he says he’s never seen anything like it.

“Fifteen, 20 years ago it used to be all cod and no haddock,” d’Eon says. “Now it’s got turned all around, less and less cod and more and more haddock, year after year. It’s been easier to make a trip now for probably the past four or five years.”

He adds, “Georges Banks used to be closed January and February. This year they opened it up and allowed eight boats at once. I’m waiting my turn now, and I expect to go in the next few days.”

What d’Eon is seeing and catching is no fluke and no accident, according to Brian Giroux, executive director of the Scotia-Fundy Mobile Gear Fishermen’s Association, based in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. And he adds that the January and February limited opening was a survey fishery to determine how well the haddock stocks are recovering.

“The truth be told, we’re sitting astride a massive bounty of haddock,” Giroux says. “It’s primarily due to Mother Nature, with some help from a joint effort on both sides of the border. It started years back as an informal cooperation with the United States but now it’s been formalized. Consequently, what has happened is a massive biomass, the result of good management and conservation.”

One conservation measure has been the development of a trawl with a two-part panel. “Believe it or not, it allows us to catch haddock and let the cod go free. The haddock swim up into the part of the trawl that’s closed, while the cod swim down into the part that’s open-ended. Obviously, we can’t throw anything back, and we have to report everything. Let’s face it, we’re still paranoid about cod so this trawl has worked really well.” Giroux adds that the technology has recently been shared with U.S. fishermen.

Giroux says that if there’s any downside to this phenomenon its that when the current classes mature and become fishable in 2006, the price will probably come down, but it’s a problem he can live with. “But it will also mean that everybody will be able to buy good fresh haddock.”

A report on Eastern Georges Bank Haddock provided by Stratis Gavaris, a scientist for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, includes the following:

* Combined Canada and USA catches in 2003 were about 8,400 mt [metric tons];

* Adult biomass (ages 3 ) has increased since 1993 and was about 76,000 mt at the beginning of 2004.

The 2003 year class may be comparable to the outstanding 1963 class. The 2000 year class is estimated to be larger than the strong 1975 and 1978 year classes and the 1998 year class is the third strongest since the 1978.

Productivity has increased since the 1980s due to improved production of recruits per spawner and increases in the number of larger and older fish in the population.

Meanwhile, in Newfoundland the DFO, together with the provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, has been holding a series of cod recovery strategy workshops.