Fish stocks close to collapse

Britain's fish stocks are in trouble more than ever before, and cod is in the worst trouble of all.

Long years of overfishing, even with the European Union's quota systems, are combining with climatic changes to produce a crisis in the levels - and, more importantly, in the reproduction rates - of several key commercial whitefish species in waters around the British Isles.

More than half of the North-east Atlantic regional stocks of such fish as cod, haddock, whiting and saithe are showing such low levels of young fish that they are outside safe biological limits, which means that the stocks could eventually collapse, according to Sarah Jones, marine policy officer with the World Wide Fund for Nature.

But cod has the worst problems. Its situation is "absolutely dreadful", Ms Jones said.

In the North Sea the stock is under severe pressure and in the Irish Sea collapse is close. Last December the EU cut catch quotas right back, but this spring, in a further and unprecedented emergency measure, the Irish Sea cod fishery was completely closed for ten weeks to allow the cod to spawn undisturbed.

There are two reasons for the problems, Ms Jones said. The first is the overfishing that has happened because of the way fisheries have been managed. "The EU works on the basis of a Total Allowable Catch for a single very large area, but within than area some local stocks may need more managing than others," she said. "We need to move urgently towards more local, zonal management."

The other reason is climatic. The seas around the British Isles, particularly the North Sea, appear to be warming - perhaps because of climate change - and warmer water is not liked by, or helpful to, cold-water whitefish species such as cod.

In a recent paper in Nature government fisheries scientists said that sea-surface temperatures in the North Sea have climbed on average from 7.75C to over 8C during the 1990s, accelerating in line with the forecasts of man-made global warming.

Cod were very sensitive to such changes, they said. They warned: "The combination of a diminished stock and the possible persistence of adverse warm conditions is endangering the long-term sustainability of cod in the North Sea."

"This is a remarkable time, with vast changes taking place in the composition and biology of North-east Atlantic fish stocks," Sarah Jones said.