What led Canada to halt cod fisheries in 1992?

• A. The cod stocks were recovering due to improved quotas
• B. A market collapse forced fishing closures
• C. Over-fishing and climate changes caused a dramatic reduction
• D. A disease wiped out cod across oceans sharply

Answer: (C)

The situation tests why the Atlantic cod population in Canada collapsed and led to the 1992 moratorium. The best answer shows that a combination of ongoing over-fishing and environmental changes pushed the stock to levels that could not sustain themselves. When fleets continuously removed large numbers of cod, the age structure and spawning capacity of the population were eroded, and recruitment of new fish fell. At the same time, climate-related changes in the North Atlantic—warmer waters, shifts in prey, and altered ocean conditions—made survival and reproduction more difficult for cod. Taken together, these factors caused a dramatic drop in cod abundance, reaching a point where continuing fishing was no longer sustainable, so the government halted fishing to try to protect the stock.

This isn’t about a market collapse driving closures, nor about a disease wiping out cod globally, and it isn’t about stocks recovering due to quotas. Those ideas don’t capture the real driver: ecological decline from persistent over-fishing amplified by environmental change.