WWF charity research has shown that North Sea Cod is not out of danger yet, even though there has been a marginal improvement in their number. WWF scientists feel that the poor management of stocks threatens to undermine the number of cod in the area, and lead to a dramatic halt in the replenishment.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) has recommended that a 20% reduction in the fishing quota will help restore fish stocks to a level that will sustain a healthy industry. The European Commission will also need to follow this advice to attain a sustainable catch level for all E.U. fish stocks by 2015.
Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF Scotland, Louize Hill, said –
Although a recovery plan is in place for cod stocks, conservation measures are not being effectively implemented or enforced across the whole fishery, and the problem of discards continue to blight any signs of improvement. The recent signs of recovery in the North Sea must be capitalised upon. Discard reduction measures must be mandatory for the catching sector, and long-term management plans that are fishery-wide must be enforced in the upcoming reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy.
The Scottish Conservation Credits Scheme is definitely on the right track and this kind of strong co-operation between the fishing industry, governments and conservation groups on protecting stocks needs to be firmly built into the way the reformed Common Fisheries Policy works in future.
Though numbers are definitely increasing, there is not yet enough North Sea Cod to maintain a healthy stock level. The planned EU cod recovery target cannot be achieved unless catches are reduced significantly. One of the major issues is the discards that are thrown back into the sea, and these account for up to a staggering 50% of all caught between 2007-09. A large majority of the Cod ‘bycatch’ is often caught by fishermen who are trawling for other fish stocks.
WWF officials are now calling for all vessels to fully document all of their catch, no matter what the species. This can be monitored by by using onboard cameras and catch quotas that will limit the amount of fish removed from the sea instead of recording just what is landed. Already in use across Scotland, England and Denmark, this approach could lead to a marked reduction in discards across the EU if other countries use the new technology available to help the North Sea Cod stock to replenish.
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