A federal cabinet minister for Newfoundland and Labrador is denying reports that Ottawa is going to announce this week the closure of the depleted East Coast cod fishery.

Canwest News Service reported Monday that Federal Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault would make the announcement sometime after Monday, following the Quebec election.

If the announcement is made, it would affect thousands of workers in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec.

Newfoundland and Labrador's representative in the federal cabinet told Canwest on Monday that no decision had been made on the northeastern cod fishery.

"I can say categorically there is no decision taken on the cod fishery," Gerry Byrne, the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, told radio station CFCB in Corner Brook.

"There's a lot of information that has to be digested and dissected."

A senior fisheries official said he would not be surprised by such an announcement, telling Canwest "they've been talking about it for a long time."

Ottawa imposed a moratorium on cod fishing in 1992 to bring cod stocks back up. In 1998, the moratorium was lifted to allow a drastically scaled-back cod fishery. Federal scientists believe the cod stocks have not recovered.

In March, a federal advisory group recommended the recreational cod fishery off the east coast of Newfoundland be shut down. The Fisheries Resource Conservation Council also suggested a 1,500-tonne sentinel, or scientific fishery, and closure of the capelin fishery.

To compound the problem, record cold water temperatures have killed thousands of tonnes of cod in Smith Sound, Nfld. Unfortunately, the massive kill happened in a part of Trinity Bay that showed signs of recovery following the moratorium.

A closure is expected to cost about $30 million in annual revenues and severely affect at least 900 fishermen who are considered heavily dependent on cod. Newfoundland says another 15,000 people fishing and process cod in the province, while Quebec puts the number at 4,000 in its province.

With reports from The Canadian Press