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EU officials raise specter of disappearing cod stocks

Cod is slipping closer to disappearing from key European fishing grounds, officials have said, adding that only steep catch cuts will prevent the disappearance of a species prized for centuries for its flaky white flesh.

The EU’s executive body called on Friday for sharp cuts in the amount of cod fisherman can catch next year — up to 25 percent in some areas. The European Commission said recent studies showed cod catches in some areas are far outstripping the rate of reproduction.

Scientists estimated that in the 1970s there were more than 250,000 tonnes of cod in fishing grounds in the North Sea, eastern English Channel and Scandinavia’s Skagerrak strait. In recent years, however, stocks have dropped to 50,000 tonnes.

“We are not that far away from a situation of complete collapse,” said Jose Rodriguez, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. He and other environmentalists said pressure from the fishing industry had kept quotas at levels too high to sustain a viable populations around Europe, while lack of enforcement meant illegal fishing made the problem worse.

The European Commission said on Friday it would seek to cut the catch in some fishing grounds around Britain, France, Spain and much of Scandinavia next year from 5,700 tonnes to 4,250 tonnes.

In the Mediterranean, bluefin tuna has been overfished for years to satisfy increasing world demand for sushi and sashimi.

The tuna population is now a fraction of what it was a few decades ago, but the EU’s Mediterranean nations last month refused to impose even a temporary ban.

Oceana estimated that illegal fishing doubled the amount of tuna caught.

Meanwhile, cod, which once sustained vibrant fishing communities from Portugal to Britain to Canada, is increasingly consumed by the tonne as salt cod and fish-and-chips.

“People don’t ask for fish and chips, they ask for cod and chips,” said Mike Guo, a manager at Great Fish and Chips in Essex, England. “It’s a traditional dish.”

The depletion of the species has caused the decay and disappearance of hundreds of fishing villages on both sides of the Atlantic.

Overfishing off Canada’s maritime provinces exhausted the world’s richest cod grounds and forced the government to impose a fishing moratorium.

The collapse wiped out more than 42,000 jobs, and 18 years later the fish have not returned.

“It was devastating,” said Tom Hedderson, minister of fisheries in Newfoundland. “This affected whole communities ... all up and down the coast here in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

He welcomed the EU call to cut catches by 25 percent, but suggested more drastic cuts may be needed.

Canadian scientists say the collapse of cod stocks off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia changed the marine ecosystem so dramatically that it may be impossible for cod to recover. Off Newfoundland alone, cod stocks once exceeded more than 400,000 tonnes but now scale only 5,500 tonnes, Hedderson said.

There are signs of recovery of Atlantic cod off New England, however, after years of conservation efforts. And international regulators have reopened some areas off Canada for limited fishing, said Scott Cantin, spokesman for Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The fishing industry in Europe, however, is in decline. The number of vessels in the 15 countries that were part of the EU in 1995 has dropped from 104,000 then to 81,000 in 2006. In Britain, employment in the fishing sector sank from 21,600 in 1990 to 16,100 in 2006.

The EU Commission’s demand for cod cuts will be discussed in a Dec. 14 to Dec. 15 meeting, when the fishing quotas for next year will be finalized.

“The ... prognosis for most stocks is not encouraging, with many in a worse state than last year,” Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on Friday. “This, combined with the difficult economic climate, will mean that the negotiations will be even more challenging this time around.”
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