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Scientists with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are keeping a close eye on cod stocks in southern Labrador, in the wake of reports from harvesters catching fish in rough shape this season.

"What we're catching here now, it's very poor. There's nothing in the puttocks [digestive tract] of the fish," fisherman Warrick Chubbs told CBC's The Broadcast.

"Only little jellyfish, the size of your thumbnail, and not many of them. The very odd one, you'll see maybe one or two rotten shrimp."

Chubbs isn't alone in his concerns.

"It certainly seems like this year in southern Labrador the cod are not in very good condition at all," said DFO research scientist John Brattey, who is hearing multiple similar reports from the region.

"The cod are in poor condition, very thin, and not much yield when they fillet them, so that is a little bit of a concern."

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