Cod crisis 'worse than thought'

The crisis facing Britain's cod fishing industry is far worse than previously thought, the European Commission has warned.

Research still to be published shows that the number of fish is much lower than studies have so far suggested. Fisheries commissioner Franz Fischler said cod stocks around Britain had never been lower.

He said the present policy of fishing quotas had been "a flop" and that fishing fleets would have to cut their catches to allow the cod population to recover. Herr Fischler had already warned of a serious threat of cod extinction unless drastic action was taken.

That claim was dismissed by the fishing industry, which claimed the research was out of date and that there were signs that the number of cod were increasing.

'Desperate' need

Herr Fischler said: "Cod stocks in the North Sea, the west of Scotland, and Kattegat are in an even worse state than previously thought. This illustrates all the more how desperately we need to put in place recovery plans that work."

The findings, from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, could lead to the imposition of drastic conservation measures. That could involve strict controls on "fishing effort" - the amount of time the fleet spends at sea.

Brendan May, the chief executive of the Marine Stewardship Council told BBC Radio 4's farming Today programme that European politicians should stop trying to protect their fishing fleets. He said the time had come for drastic action to reduce fishing effort and decommission fishing boats across the community.

(BBC 11 June 2003)