Rebuilding Capelin: Everybody’s Fish, Everybody’s Responsibility   - Oceana Canada
Home / Blog / Rebuilding Capelin: Everybody’s Fish, Everybody’s Responsibility  

November 21, 2023

Rebuilding Capelin: Everybody’s Fish, Everybody’s Responsibility  

Estimated reading time: 0 minutes

 

In the cold waters of Newfoundland and Labrador, capelin, a small forage fish, is in a crisis, threatening the delicate balance of this marine ecosystem. Capelin provides essential food for species such as puffins, cod and humpback whales. 

Capelin have been overfished and critically depleted for 30 years and yet a commercial fishery still operates, targeting female capelin for their eggs and hindering a chance at recovery. Continuing to fish a species that is languishing in a depleted state is government-sanctioned overfishing and has community-level impacts that cannot be ignored.  

Eighty-four per cent of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians support pausing the fishery until the population can recover. 

It’s time to listen to the people. 

Watch the video to hear from community members who are directly impacted by the mismanagement of this fishery and help protect this culturally and ecologically important fish. 

Everybody’s fish, everybody’s responsibility.  

Learn more about our work to protect capelin here.