'No more cod' if North Sea grounds are not closed
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor

STOCKS of cod in British waters are on the verge of a collapse of the kind that put 40,000 fisherman out of work in Newfoundland in 1992, scientists said yesterday.

 Experts from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, which advises EU ministers, said that drastic measures were needed to save stocks and the fishing fleet. These could include wholesale closure of parts of the North Sea next year.

 In its worst-ever warning, ICES said that cod stocks were "outside safe biological limits" and that fishing in the North Sea at current rates "is expected to lead to stock collapse". 

Elliot Morley, the fisheries minister, said: "The situation is extremely serious. Very tough decisions will have to be made at next month's EU Fisheries Council which decides on the quotas of each species members may catch."

 He said: "It is notable that the UK fleet has only been able to catch 60 per cent of its quota this year - simply because the boats have been unable to find the fish. The decisions next month will not only affect the UK's own industry but all other member states which fish the North Sea."

 Scientists said that reducing quotas - as happened last year - would not be enough to save the cod. Brendan May, chief executive of the Marine Stewardship Council, said: "Every year we are told that things are getting worse. Does nobody remember the 40,000 jobs lost in Newfoundland in 1992 when that fishery collapsed? That fishery is still closed today."

 He said: "Unless Governments take firm action by rewarding sustainable fishing practices and penalising unsustainable ones, thousands of British and European fishermen will be thrown out of work."

 There is only one fishery in the world where cod has recovered from the low levels scientists are now recording and that was in the Barents Sea in the 1980s. There the Norwegian Government persuaded fishermen not to fish by paying the mortgages on their houses and their boats.

 Norway also banned industrial fishing for capelin, the food of the cod. Neither EU ministers, nor the Treasury are as yet planning any such measures for the North Sea.