Mismanagement of the North Sea cod by the European Council

Abstract

The North Sea cod stock is outside of safe biological limits, yet it continues to suffer from overfishing at three times the level that could produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). As a result, the subpopulation of cod in the southern North Sea may have gone extinct. Continued overfishing was decided and thus legalized by the Council of European agriculture ministers despite repeated scientific advice, since 2003, to close the fishery. Here we show that with observed recruitment, a three year closure of the cod fishery from 2003 to 2005 would have rebuilt the stock sufficiently for fishing activities to resume. MSY-level fishing pressure would then have allowed further recovery of the stock and would have led to high profits that could have easily paid for the costs of the closure. We stress that this recovery scenario is not unrealistic because it is built on actual recruitment, fish growth, and landing prices. Given the gross management failure, we question the functionality of the current management system.