Study of the small pelagic fisheries for Atlantic herring and Atlantic mackerel on the west coast of Newfoundland (NAFO Division 4R)

Small pelagic fish species play a key role in marine ecosystems as important forage species and are also an important contributor to food security and commercial aquaculture production. In eastern Canada, a great deal of attention has been paid to the collapse of multiple groundfish stocks in the early 1990s, and to their largely stalled recovery 20 years later. Less attention has been directed to the catastrophic decline of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus harengus) populations in the 1960s or to the current weak stock status of many small pelagic stocks in the region