\"Is cod in decline?\"..........only 1 answer, isn\'t there?
I remember seeing a piece on the N.E. news (about 2 years ago).....they were interviewing a trawlerman about quota restrictions, net sizes and the like.
Despite the research and the figures, he refused to acknowledge that there was ANY decline in cod stocks and didn\'t see any need for any further imposition of restrictions..........talk about Ostriches burying their head in the sand :exclam:
With THAT sort of attitude is it any wonder that stocks of cod are at crisis level. Personally, when I hear trawlermen bleating on about having to sell their boats, give up the business and the dire consequences for the local fishing community, I find it VERY difficult to have any sympathy for them. They have raked the sea for everything they could get for years, without ANY thought of the future fish population.
As has been previously said, the amount of \"wastage\" that is thrown back dead is sickening. Yes angling does have some \"wastage\", but when you\'re putting back 1 dead, undersized codling, it pales into insignificance to the amount of damage 1 trawler can do.
The time for them to be looking at their operating practices has long since past.......they have plundered the sea for all they could get and now they are reaping the consequesnces.
I don\'t think Billy\'s far wrong in his prediction that within a few years the only place you\'ll see a Cod is either in somewhere like the Sea Life Centres (or whatever they are called now), or in a museum.
Ofcourse, all of what I\'ve said above is only the way I feel.........I\'m quite happy to be \"put straight\" if I\'ve come to the wrong conclusion.
[Edited on 8/3/2005 by TC]