"In almost the blink of an eye, Canada's east coast cod fishery collapsed completely. The famous Grand Banks fishery was dead. First sounded by European explorers in the late 15th century, the banks were internationally known to be a famous fishing ground for the Northern cod. Sadly, this is no longer the case." "The end came officially on July 2, 1992: John Crosbie, Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, announced a moratorium on Northern cod stocks. For half a millennium, the Grand Banks cod had sustained international fishing fleets, boosted the world's economy, become the flash point in power politics, and was the lifeblood of generations of villages perched on rocky outcrops along the Newfoundland coast. Crosbie's announcement was the final nail in the Grand Banks coffin." "What happened? For 16 years, accountability has been dodged. The media has been mute. Successive governments buried the shameful tale under layers of secrecy, subsidies and the "good news" story of off-shore oil." "The new cod-fishing fleets - technological juggernauts with the capacity to ravage a sea floor - have denied responsibility. A few courageous marine biologists have spoken up, only to find themselves squarely in the sights of government censors. The in-shore fishery - the small-boat fishermen who plied the cold waters of the Banks for generations - now reflect bitterly on better times." "When they saw the stocks decline - and their livelihood with it - they sounded the first alarm, but apparently no one was listening." "Alex Rose asks who is listening now. The answer to who killed the Grand Banks just might be another alarm bell for us today, signalling future environmental and ecosystem destruction. And while theories abound as to what caused the catastrophic collapse - botched science, timorous and fluctuating political will, a boom in the seal population - it is indisputable that the ecosystem of the cold Grand Bank waters has changed dramatically."--Jacket.