Lecture: Cape Cod: Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an environmental conservation class. Professor: Next, I want to talk about the collapse of the North American Cod population. Let's look at the Cape Cod, in the Northeastern United States. The area was named Cape Cod because there were so many cod fish in the waters just off its shores. So many, that the first Europeans who fished there in the 17th century reported that it was better than the New Finland, Canada. At the time, New Finland's cod fishery was so rich that people said that it was possible just to lower a bucket in the water, pull it out, and it'd be full out of cod. But Cape Cod was even better. So the fishing industry there did great until after the 1940s. There were simply too many fishing vessels, sophisticated vessels, competing for fewer and fewer fish. In the 1940s, there were still about 400 million pounds of fish caught at Cape Cod every year. Just 50 years later though, by 1990s, commercial cod fishing there had become unprofitable. The annual catch had gone down to about 5 percent of its 1940s' level. And here is so fascinating, as more and more fishing vessels, and better and better fishing technology were competing for cod, this competition was causing changes to the biology of the fish. And these changes were making it more and more difficult for the cod population to sustain itself. Student: Changes to the biology of the fish? Professor: Well, if a cod fish could reproduce earlier than usual, it'd have a better chance of passing on it genes to the next generation before being caught, right? And sure enough, biologist noticed that around Cape Cod, the cod were becoming to mature at an earlier age than normal. Prior to the population collapse, cod usual took about 8 to 10 years to fully mature to start to reproduce. Umm , and they lived around 40 years total. So cod had about 30 years of active reproductive life. But now, cod were beginning to reproduce at a younger age, at 3 to 4 years old. And they were living shorter lives, because they were being caught. So they had fewer years within which to reproduce. Additionally, even though some fish in the population were maturing at an earlier age, none was actually growing faster. No cod has a way of speeding up its rate of growth. So the younger reproductive age actually meant that smaller fish were reproducing. And when you are a small cod reproducing, you produce fewer eggs than a large cod. The smaller cod simply don't have the body mass to produce as many eggs. The overfishing pressure on the cod population was pushing the cod into a evolutionary corner. They were having a harder and harder time surviving. Student: But what can be done to prevent other scenarios like this? I mean, obviously, we need a better way to manage environmental resources. Professor: Well, what do you guys suggest? Carol? Student: Hum, maybe privatize the resource? Private owners would wanna manage resources efficiently, in a sustainably way. Professor: Ok ... But the problem is privatization doesn't necessarily resort in better management of an environmental resource. Any ideas why it wouldn't? Student: Well, an individual owner might not properly assess the limits of the resource. So they could be just as prone to over-exploring that resource as a group, where lots of people have access to it. Professor: Yes. Well, like in the 1970s, when it was already clear, the north American cod population was declining dramatically, the U.S and Canada declared a 200 miles exclusive economic zone in the waters around Cape Cod. By declaring an exclusive economic zone, you see, these two countries were trying to extend their territorial waters. Basically it was as if they were saying, we are the private owners. We own these waters. So we own the rights to the fishing of them too. Essentially, the two countries told fishing vessels, trawlers, from all other nations, to get out of the cod fishing area. You'd think that be good news for the cod, because there would be less fishing. However, the U.S and Canada, wanted to expel foreign trawlers only in order to increase the numbers of their own fishing fleets. The total number of fishing trawlers actually increased. Another possible solution – – Pass laws that regulate use of the resource. But for regulations to be effective, penalties for breaking the law have to be large enough to deter the violators.