The European Commission called Friday for sharp cuts in cod quotas — up to 25 percent in some areas — saying the prized fish is sliding toward commercial extinction in several historic Atlantic fishing grounds.
The EU’s executive commission said "things took a turn for the worse" last year when more of the threatened fish was caught in the North Sea, the eastern English Channel and Scandinavia’s Skagerrak strait than in any other year in the past decade.
The threat is so great that the Commission wants to go well beyond a guideline maximum cut of 15 percent in fisherman’s quotas to a 25 percent in the most threatened fishing grounds.
In the EU’s other major fishing ground, the Mediterranean, the situation is just as bad for the famous bluefin tuna, which has been ruthlessly overfished for years to satisfy the world’s increasing demand for sushi and sashimi.