Scientists Call For Drastic Cutbacks In EU Cod Fishing - Reuters

[hatrack]

Funny, I'd swear I'd heard this before . . .

BRUSSELS - Europe's trawlermen should cut back drastically next year on trawling for cod in the North Sea and aim to take less than half their 2006 catch from the sea, a group of international scientists said on Monday. Cod, one of Europe's most threatened species due to years of chronic overfishing, has long risked a collapse in numbers. But matters seem to have improved slightly, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) said.

"Our scientific surveys show that the number of young fish has increased, although only to half of the long-term average," said Martin Pastoors, chairman of the ICES' main committee on compiling scientific advice on fish stocks and numbers.

But this, combined with evidence that recent EU controls on restricted catches and time that vessels spend at sea were helping raise fish numbers, was still not enough, Pastoors said.

"We recommend constraining catches in 2008 to less than 50 percent of the 2006 catches. And this should include measures to constrain discards and illegal catches," he said.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/44846/story.htm

[eppur_se_muova]

1. ...for the Nth time... nt

[Ian David]

2. Let's eat Ben Stein instead. n/t