North Sea cod stocks face extinction

Greenpeace today (22 December 2005) warned that the European Union has failed to protect North Sea cod stocks from the threat of extinction, ignoring key scientific advice to ban fishing for cod in the North Sea for the fourth year running.

After the latest round of talks in Brussels, EU fisheries ministers again ignored key scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) to halt cod fishing in the North Sea. Instead, ministers have announced a 15% reduction in the amount of cod allowed to be caught. However scientists and environmentalists stress that the only way to save threatened cod stocks is to grant zero quotas.

Greenpeace oceans campaigner, Oliver Knowles, said: "If fishing for cod is allowed to continue, then cod will be wiped out and the UK cod fishing industry will be destroyed. This repeated failure to act decisively is slowly but surely draining the life out of the North Sea.

"If the EU was serious about protecting oceans, then they'd be listening to the scientists and not caving in to the fishing industry. The only way to allow the North Sea to recover is to ban cod fishing and to close large areas of the North Sea to fishing and other destructive activities."

Greenpeace is calling for 40% of the North Sea to be protected as a marine reserve, permanently closed to fishing and other extractive uses.

Greenpeace is also on Britain's supermarkets to remove the most over fished and destructively caught fish species from their shelves. For a league table of British supermarkets and their fish polices please visit our oceans web page, 'A Recipe for Disaster'.

For more information, contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.