Conservation group Oceana Canada is urging caution despite a positive assessment of the capelin stock off Newfoundland and Labrador.

The latest report from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans shows the capelin stock is healthier than it has been in a decade. However, Oceana Canada says the biomass is still only about 20 percent of what it was in the late 1980s before its collapse.

Jack Daly argues that a healthy capelin stock is crucial for the recovery of cod – and calls for cuts in the way capelin is fished.

“If our fishery just grabbed some capelin like people do on the beaches every year, that’d be one thing. But it’s targeting females carrying eggs. It’s really getting that next generation before we have a chance,” he told VOCM News.

“(The report) showed a lot more age threes. So it showed three-year-olds. Now that coincides with the fact that there was actually no fishery in 2022. So this is the assessment for 2025. It shows a lot more three-year-olds. What didn’t we do three years ago? We didn’t harvest the eggs.”