Atlantic Canada is a remarkable marine ecosystem home to many aquatic species, especially species of commercially valuable fish – more specifically the Atlantic cod. In the 1990s, Canada’s abundant cod stock were famous all around the world, attracting many settlers to the area. The cod industry became the staple of the economy for the East Coast and had increased living standards, increased employment, and increased household incomes. Until the years of overfishing, wasteful practices and lack of resource management took its toll, collapsing the cod fishing industry and caused turmoil for Atlantic Canada and the state altogether. The cod economy generated a billion dollars a year for Canada and when the earths great natural resource had been decimated it brought life to a standstill. The collapse of the Atlantic Cod industry caused the largest industrial shut down in history throwing 19,000 people out of work immediately and threatens tens of thousand other …show more content…
Similarly to the video ‘Taking Stock’, the article ‘Real Change’ discusses the controversy in regards to who should be determining the resource management decisions of the fishing industry. Whether it should people who are involved with the fishery or the people in Ottawa with little knowledge of how the fishery operates to have control over management. Both articles are opposed to governmental proposals of conservation; since the fishing industry is the principal way of life for the majority of the population, fishers strive to find a new form of environmental management that will sustain marine eco-systems and allow fishermen to continue fishing. The style of resource management must maintain that environmental, economic and social issues are interconnected and all must be integrated into the decision making process for effective progress. In the video ‘Taking Stock’ when the Atlantic cod had be destroyed and left the economy imperil people were searching for someone to blame; workers, the government, researchers, consumers, fish corporations… when in reality we were all somehow to blame. The article ‘Real Change’ disagrees with the top-down decision making approach to resource management because they feel effective management approaches can not be made by those who have no knowledge