Life history and habitat associations of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) in Newfoundland waters

Many fish stocks are currently facing collapse or overexploitation as well as warming environments. During the 1950s and 1960s, haddock supported a substantial fishery in southern Newfoundland waters, specifically Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Divisions 3LNO and Subdivision 3Ps, but abundance has been comparatively low over the last several decades and there has been no significant fishery in either 3LNO or 3Ps since the late-1950s. The decline in the fishery for haddock coincided with a decline in scientific research on haddock with the last significant research on haddock in Newfoundland waters conducted in the 1950s-1960s. Other haddock stocks have shown major life history changes since the 1980s, including decreased size-at-age and age/length at maturity. In contrast to this, Newfoundland haddock have not shown a significant change in growth or maturity through time. Based on analysis of habitat associations, haddock abundance is expected to increase with recent warming trends as the available optimum habitat for haddock will increase.

The current state of /L/ allophony in St. John's English

This project examines the use and evaluation of light post-vocalic /l/ in St. John's, Newfoundland. The city, which was primarily settled by the Irish, traditionally did not conform to the Standard Canadian pattern of /l/ allophony. That is, it was reported to have light /l/ in all positions, in contrast to Canadian English, which has dark /l/ in codas and light /l/ in onsets (Clarke 2012). There have been, however, several major social and economic changes in Newfoundland since the mid-twentieth century, which have impacted local dialects (Clarke 2010). In terms of postvocalic /l/, data collected by Clarke in St. John's in the 1980s shows that the light variant is declining in use and being replaced by the dark variant, and that little overt awareness is accompanying this change (2012). This study addresses the decline and awareness of this feature, through production and perception experiments, respectively. This work follows that of Clarke in that it looks at younger age groups that have been born since Clarke's study was conducted in the early 1980s. The results of these experiments suggest that the light post-vocalic /l/ has continued its decline in St. John's English, and that the dark variant is a stable norm. In fact, it is light /l/ in initial position that is experiencing social variation, in that younger speakers are using darker /l/s in this position than their older counterparts. Women, though they display a more standard /l/ allophony pattern overall than men, also show more dramatic initial-/l/ darkening in apparent time. Additionally, there is a significant style shift between word list and interview tasks in this position. The perception experiment shows that there is awareness and stigma associated with the light variant in coda, which could extend to light /l/s in general.