The fishery closure ended almost 500 years of fishing activity in Newfoundland and Labrador, where it put about 30,000 people out of work.

Newfoundland and Labrador's historic cod fisheries attracted fishing fleets for five centuries before being shut down indefinitely.

Following the 1992 cod moratorium, Newfoundland and Labrador's fishing industry shifted from a groundfishery to a shellfishery.