The Atlantic Cod stocks of the North West Atlantic over the decades of fishing once seemed endless in abundance. The replacement rate of Atlantic Cod could not stay ahead of human advancement in fishing technology forever. With the twentieth century came an advancement in technology that allowed fishers to find and harvest large amounts of fish. Yet what did not advance was the industry’s ability to limit fishing to a sustainable level. In the Grand Banks region 810,000 tons of Atlantic Cod was caught there alone in 1968 in contrast to only 360,000 in 1959. With the same amount of investment from the industry only 300,000 tons of cod were caught only six years later, and so continued the downward spiral of cod stocks.
Action was taken by the government of Canada resulting in an immediate moratorium of Atlantic Cod. The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization limited the amount of Atlantic Cod fishing.