The federal Fisheries Department is trying to shed more light on seals’ impact — or lack thereof — on Newfoundland and Labrador’s struggling cod stocks.

Marine mammal scientist Garry Stenson says people have been blaming seals for the slow rebound of northern cod since the species collapsed off the northeast coast of the province decades ago. But in a presentation Tuesday, Stenson and his colleague, research scientist Mariano Koen-Alonso, said the spotlight should be on the ocean’s changing ecosystem and the changing climate…