Cod crisis? What cod crisis?

[Leon Roskilly]

and then when you do see someone catching refusing to except that the cod crisis is maybe not such a crisis after all.

 

 

According to ICES there is some 40,000 tonne of cod swimming in the North Sea.

 

 

There are still hotspots with many cod available.

 

Not surprisingly some of these hotspots are around wrecks which are not commercially fished, and maybe visited by one angling boat once a year!

 

(As the population is reduced, it tends to shoal together more tightly so that in those areas still inhabited by cod, they can appear to be plentiful. But those areas are fewer, and the empty space between greater. But with the right technology it is still possible to make good (but in the long term unsustainable) catches.

 

 

However, the real problem is that cod stocks have fallen from 250,000 tonne in the early 1970's.

 

OK that was at the end of the gadoid outburst (when winter conditions and plankton populations especially favoured the development of juvenile cod), so you would expect some reduction.

 

But what is worrying is that the level at which ICES considers productivity of the stock to be impaired is 70,000 tonne, and we are down to just 40,000 tonne, well below that level.

 

 

Added to which it is now apparent that the North Sea cod stocks are not one homoegenous stock, able to expand to fill the space as recovery happens, but actually a number of distinct sub stocks, and some of these sub stocks have been depleted much more than others and the real danger to those has only recently become apparent.

 

Again another reason why you might be finding decent catches where you go, but otheres fishing other areas are finding a very different story unfolding.

 

 

So, when you look at the picture in detail, the fact that your anglers are still sometimes getting good catches is no reason to start to feel complacent about the future of our cod stocks.

 

Unfortunately.

[Guest challenge]

Leon. You can give me ICES accounts of what there is and what there isn’t till it comes out of our ears.

We are not stupid. We do know that there is not the fish (cod) in the North Sea that there once was.

All I am saying is that this year has been the best fishing year we have had since I joined chieftain four years ago. There has been fish (and fishing) on wrecks where we had seen very little before.

There has been a good sprinkling of cod on most of the ground we have visited.

It must be a hell of a hot spot because we fish anywhere from north of the forth (Scotland) to 70 miles of Amsterdam.

Besides commercial fishermen, the only other things we have not seen are ICES scientists gathering all this information.

Regards.

[Ian Burrett]

I was at a meeting yesterday with the Scottish exec fisheries group. It appears the that the CFP are recommending a further 25 per cent reduction in cod catches for next year. ICES are recommending zero catch.

[Guest challenge]

I was at a meeting yesterday with the Scottish exec fisheries group. It appears the that the CFP are recommending a further 25 per cent reduction in cod catches for next year. ICES are recommending zero catch.

The CFP. 250000 people of Scotland signed a petition saying how disastrous the bad management of the CFP has been to everyone in Britain affected with it.

The CFP has united politicians throughout Britain in there condemnation of it.

The same bureaucrats that our so called RSA representatives want to give the keys of our hobby too.

Well that’s ok then Ian.

the cod must be finnished.

[ColinW]

I don't want to sail 155 miles to catch cod. I'll believe the stocks are OK when I can catch them by casting 155 yards. Tracking them down to their last refuges and then slaughtering them in huge numbers doesn't sound like a sensible step towards real stock recovery.

You say you never saw a commercial boat. Try looking beneath your feet.

[glennk]

Sharkbyte please do not be rude. Ive seen comments like that cause all out war in these places before. Scotty - I once got a serious repremand off one of the mods for suggesting a member of the forum leave.

[glennk]

I don't want to sail 155 miles to catch cod. I'll believe the stocks are OK when I can catch them by casting 155 yards. Tracking them down to their last refuges and then slaughtering them in huge numbers doesn't sound like a sensible step towards real stock recovery.

You say you never saw a commercial boat. Try looking beneath your feet.

 

I've been catching them at 100 yards down to 20 yards for the past 20 years, and hope to tonight too as I'm off out to take part in a spot of angling. Im going to kill some fish. Please say a prayer for me.

[Leon Roskilly]

All I am saying is that this year has been the best fishing year we have had since I joined chieftain four years ago. There has been fish (and fishing) on wrecks where we had seen very little before.

 

Hi Challenge,

 

I sincerely hope that you are right and not the scientists or WWF who published a report today.

 

http://assets.panda.org/downloads/fishdish...final150906.pdf

 

Atlantic cod can live to 25, with females

producing millions of eggs each year 18.

 

But these days, 72% of two year-

old cod in the North Sea do not

live until sexual maturity, mainly as a

result of fishing.

 

Vast numbers of juveniles

are caught in various fisheries,

including those for cod, haddock, whiting,

Norway lobster, Northern shrimp,

plaice, and sole – and then discarded,

often dead, back to the ocean.

 

In the North Sea, a whopping 51% of cod

caught in such fisheries are discarded

as they are undersize.

 

The species is now classified as Vulnerable – and if

stocks continue to decline at the current

rate, there will be no more Atlantic

cod in less than 15 years .

 

 

It's good to hear that this year there are a few about (perhaps the measures are beginning to pay off at last), but I remember what happened in 1996

 

The good 1996 year class gave some respite, but it was soon fished down.

 

 

So, I'm not inclined to invest in gear that might give me a few more yards on my pathetic casting distance just yet!

 

(But fingers crossed, however hopelessly)

Edited September 27, 2006 by Leon Roskilly

[Guest challenge]

I don't want to sail 155 miles to catch cod. I'll believe the stocks are OK when I can catch them by casting 155 yards. Tracking them down to their last refuges and then slaughtering them in huge numbers doesn't sound like a sensible step towards real stock recovery.

You say you never saw a commercial boat. Try looking beneath your feet.

Then don’t. I wouldn’t. I have just returned from my day’s recreational fishing, and I was not much further than 150 yards of the beach.

Loved every minute of it did not catch much, but then again I did not expect to catch much. Loved trying though.

I worked for 15 years on commercial fishing boats Collin and I can assure you that the boat I work on now is most certainly not one.

[Guest muttley]

Did you think that you would get a big pat on the back for posting photos like that on here mate. comment removed. Newt Too many fish taken...Crazy.