EU urges fishing cuts to save cod stocks

       The European Union's executive body is calling for sharp cuts in the amount of cod fishermen can catch next year, pointing to estimates that the fish is close to extinction in some major fishing areas around Europe.
       Officials warned on Friday that only steep catch cuts will prevent the disappearance of a species prized for centuries for its flaky white flesh.
       The European Commission said recent studies showed cod catches in some areas are far outstripping the rate of reproduction. It is calling for up to 25%cuts in some areas.
       "We are not that far away from a situation of complete collapse," said Jose Rodriguez, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. He and other environmentalists said pressure from the fishing industry had kept quotas at levels too high to sustain viable popu-lations around Europe, while lack of enforcement meant illegal fishing made the problem worse.
       Scientists estimated that in the 1970s there were more than 250,000 tons of cod in fishing grounds in the North Sea,eastern English Channel and Scandinavia's Skagerrak Strait. In recent years,however, stocks have dropped to 50,000 tons.
       The European Commission said on Friday it would seek in 2010 to cut the catch in some fishing grounds around Britain, France, Spain and much of Scandinavia from 5,700 tons to 4,250 tons.
       In the Mediterranean, bluefin tuna has been overfished for years to satisfy increasing world demand for sushi and sashimi. The tuna population is now a fraction of what it was a few decades ago, but the EU's Mediterranean nations last month refused to impose even a temporary ban.
       Oceana estimated that illegal fishing doubled the amount of tuna caught.
       Meanwhile cod, which once sustained vibrant fishing communities from Portugal to Britain to Canada, is increasingly consumed by the ton as salt cod and fish-and-chips.
       "People don't ask for fish and chips,they ask for cod and chips," said Mike Guo, a manager at Great Fish and Chips in Essex, England."It's a traditional dish."
       The depletion has caused the decay and disappearance of hundreds of fishing villages on both sides of the Atlantic.
       Overfishing off Canada's maritime provinces exhausted the world's richest cod grounds and forced the government to impose a fishing moratorium. The collapse wiped out more than 42,000 jobs, and 18 years later the fish have still not returned.
       "It was devastating," said Tom Hedderson, minister of fisheries in Newfoundland."This affected whole communities ... all up and down the coast here in Newfoundland and Labrador."
       He welcomed the EU call to cut catches by 25%, but suggested more drastic cuts may be needed.
       Some Canadian scientists believe the collapse of cod stocks off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia changed the marine ecosystem so dramatically it may be impossible for cod to recover. Off Newfoundland alone, cod stocks once exceeded 400,000 tons but now scale only 5,500 tons, Mr Hedderson said.
       There are signs of recovery of Atlantic cod off New England, however, after years of conservation efforts. And international regulators have reopened some areas off Canada for limited fishing,Canada's Fisheries and Oceans Department spokesman Scott Cantin said.
       The fishing industry in Europe, however, is in decline. The number of vessels in the 15 nations that were part of the EU in 1995 has dropped from 104,000 then to 81,000 in 2006.