In 1992 the Canadian Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans declared a moratorium on the Northern Cod fishery when the Northern Cof biomass fell to 1% of its earlier level. Over 35,000 fishers and plant workers from over 400 coastal communities across Newfoundland became unemployed. This increased economic diversification, and increased emphasis on education, and the emergence of a thriving invertebrates fishing industry (as the predatory groundfish population declined, snow crab and northern shrimp proliferated, providing the basis for a new industry that is roughly equivalent in economic value as the cod fishery it replaced).
