EU Cod & Eel Stocks Doomed If Overfishing Continues - Reuters

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BRUSSELS - "Europe's fishermen must cut back on trawling for cod if the species is to have a chance of survival and must stop altogether in some areas so stocks can recover after years of overfishing, scientists warned on Monday.

This year, the first time, they also called for the EU to ban fishing for eels, whose numbers have sunk to the lowest since 1980 -- and could take another 20 years to rise again.

"... while herring stocks are currently doing well, the outlook for some cod stocks is not so optimistic," said the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). "Baltic cod is at low levels and being harvested unsustainably," the Copenhagen-based body said. Cod was worst off in the Kattegat, waters between Denmark, Sweden and Norway where ICES called for a complete fishing ban in 2006.

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Cod was not faring much better outside EU waters: the main Faroese stock was the lowest since 1990 and at a record low along Norway's coast. But eels were the species most at risk of extinction, ICES said -- both the younger fish, known as glass eels that are born in the sea but then move to river estuaries as they search for fresh water, and the older yellow and brown eels."

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http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31132/story.htm