I'm becoming increasingly worried about the depletion of cod stocks around the British Isles, as the new quotas put in to control the British fishermen are not being kept to by foreign fisherman rendering them pointless.

What can be done? Is it the end of the cod and chips?

This post was last modified: 27-02-2007 12:00 PM by Kingfisher.

I think that the depletion of food fish stocks is a problem all around the world. Now the fishers are out there fishing what used to be considered 'trash fish', and that used to be thrown away. Also, the fishers are throwing back 'bycatch' and dead cod because the cod are either overlimit or too small.

A very useful link about this problem, thanks to World Wildlife Fund UK:

http://www.wwf.org.uk/news/scotland/n_0000003399.asp

Kingfisher

Well it is some months on and it has gone quite quiet with regards to fish stock, although I think there are still problems with other European countries over fishing where the UK ones have had quotas imposed on them.

Certainly haven't heard as much about it on the news recently though.

Well, the problem won't have gone away. Often with these things there is a big fuss in the media, which is quickly forgotten when newer stories come along. I'm not aware of a decrease in the amount of fishing, so fish such as cod must still be in danger of being overfished to an unsustainable population number. If anyone has any news on this I would be very interested, because as Bill says there hasn't been much media coverage recently.

There needs to be a full ban on cod fishing in the North sea to save the cod according to scientists, but I can't see that happening. I have seen very little if any coverage of the problem on the news so I assume that fishermen are still fishing for cod in the North sea even if it is to a quota, which may not be enough.

It seems the problem is that UK fishermen are forced to reduce their catch, but along come Spanish/Russian/Japanese fleets who simply hoover up all the fish that they can. Smaller and smaller fish are being caught, which means that breeding stock is being depleted, so unless all fishing is stopped in the North Atlantic and North Sea, we face extinction of fish stocks eventually.

Trouble is convincing the entrenched of the need. The reply always seems to be "There was always plenty in my father's time". Depressing isn't it. I hate fish and chips anyway - well the fish part at least.

This post was last modified: 03-09-2007 05:06 PM by wild canon.

It is that the other European countries just come along and take what our fisherman are forced to leave. You can understand why there is so much frustration amongst the fishing community, it is very unfair.

I like the occasional fish and chips, but it would be terrible to see a species that was so abundant overfished to the point of extinction.

Cod in the United States have been fished almost out of existence...the town of Boston was founded on cod fishing, too.

Kingfisher

I can see that it must be very difficult for fishermen who rely on cod to make a living for themselves and their family, and are then told that they can't fish anymore, but they have to understand that there will be no fish left at all if things carry on like they are.

I have just read that for the second year in a row, cod stocks in the North sea have increased which is very encouraging news and suggests the quotas are working.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas has said that there still need to be more cuts if cod are to recover fully, but this is obviously a very good start.

That's very good news, and a good start. Like you say it needs to be carried on, and even more has to be done, but at least this shows it could be possible to save the cod in the North sea.

Well I'm still very sceptical (no surprise there). If there are more cuts needed to be made if cod are going to survive in the North Sea, then how can they already be recovering?

I do agree it's a good start though.

It is a good start, and it's nice to see that some progress is actually starting to be made on a big environmental issue. Obviously there is still a long way to go, but the stocks are starting to very slowly recover. To make sure they recover completely, more needs to be done, but that doesn't mean that they are not actually recovering at all.