Managed Annihilation

A provocative account of the annihilation of the legendary Newfoundland cod fishery, this book challenges the idea that we can understand, predict, and control nature without ultimately destroying it.

By examining one of the largest natural resource management failures of the twentieth century – the collapse of the Newfoundland cod fishery – this book seeks to understand the history of, and possible alternatives to, managerial responses to environmental issues.

The commercial cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador was once the most successful fishery in the world. When it collapsed in 1992 – causing the largest single-day layoff in Canadian history and irrevocable ecological damage – fishermen, scholars, and scientists pointed to failures in management such as uncontrolled harvesting as likely culprits.

Examining the history of commercial cod fisheries in the region from the mid-nineteenth century, Managed Annihilation makes the case that the very idea of natural resource management caused the death of the cod. The collapse occurred when the fisheries were ostensibly managed by the state, and the fishery has still not recovered nearly two decades later. Although the collapse raised doubts among policy-makers about their ability to understand, predict, and control nature, their ultimate goal of control through management has not wavered – it has simply been transferred onto new targets.