The left graph compares the fishery mortality (or TAC- total allowable catch) to Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) in NL vs Iceland. However, it excludes natural mortality of each stock, which significantly changes the health of the stock and consequently, the acceptable fishery removals. Natural mortality for Northern Cod is much higher than that of Icelandic Cod. For SSB, it doesn’t matter if a fish dies from the fishery, predation, starvation or any other factor. A removal is a removal.
The graph on the right is the accurate comparison. It shows the full story using all removals (fishing + natural mortality) to show an accurate comparison of the two.
