stocks but because foreign trawlers could no longer fish the waters. Therefore, DFO set quotas overestimating the total supply and increased the total allowable catch. With the absence of foreign fishing, many Canadian and American fishing trawlers took their place, and the number of cod kept diminishing past the point of recovery.

Many local fishers noticed the drastic decrease of cod and tried to inform local government officials. In a 1978 white paper, the Newfoundland government stated: