Quota cuts imposed to save cod from extinction could be harming the North Sea – because the species is now so strong it is eating too many other fish.
Boats have been tied up and fishermen forced out of work by catch restrictions imposed amid fears that stocks were perilously low.
Trawlers are again facing EU proposals to cut the amount they are allowed to catch.
But today, the Press and Journal can reveal the evidence being given to the European Commission from the world’s top marine scientists makes no mention of a cod shortage.
In fact, the report from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (Ices) talks about an “abundance” of the species in the North Sea.
Because cod is top of the food chain, its growing presence is having an impact on haddock, herring and whiting numbers, according to the scientists.
An increasing number of sandeels – the staple diet of Scotland’s seabirds – are also being eaten.
The paper emerged days after the Marine Conservation Society said not to eat North Sea cod.
Last night, fishing leaders said consumers could eat the fish “with a clear conscience”.
Scottish Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead said the paper was evidence that the Scottish fleet’s conservation effort had worked.
“While the North Sea cod stock is not fully recovered, the stock has more than doubled in the last five years and fishing rates are now the lowest observed since assessments began in the 1960s,” the MSP said.
“North Sea cod is recovering and is fished within international limits and will not be harmed if people eat fish caught by Scottish fishermen.”
Ices – which advises the European Commission on fish stocks – says “virtually all species are strongly affected by the abundance of cod and saithe”, which are main predator species.
“Changing management target fishing mortality for cod and saithe, therefore, influences the yield of other stocks more than the management targets for these other stocks,” it said.
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said: “As our knowledge of marine ecosystems increases it is more apparent than ever that species’ interactions are incredibly complex and inevitably.
“Cod prey upon sandeels and the recent poor breeding success of our seabird populations, many of which rely upon sandeels for food, could well be down to an increase in cod affecting their numbers.”
The Press and Journal sent the Ices paper to the Marine Conservation Society, which last week kept cod on its list of “fish to avoid”. Jim Masters – the group’s fisheries programme manager – said: “This science shows that cod stocks in the North Sea have only now, after years of restrictions and hard work from the fishing industry, just come up to precautionary limits.”
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