May 7, 2014 — Pity the poor consumer who wants to make informed decisions about eating cod. Conflicting reports on the state of cod stocks range from misinterpretation of the science—such as the Telegraph’s story that there were only 100 adult cod left in the North Sea (the correct figure was around 21 million)—to misunderstanding over the state of cod stocks in different territorial waters.
The North East Arctic cod stock is currently booming and provides much of the cod consumed in the UK, while the Northwest Atlantic cod fishery which collapsed 20 years ago has not yet recovered, and several other cod stocks remain at historically low levels. Fisheries management is complex, and reporting filled with errors and omissions only adds to consumers’ confusion.
Television program Masterchef stirred up a fuss this week after its website pointed viewers to the Marine Conservation Society’s guidelines for sustainably harvested fish. Scottish trawlermen were reported to be angered by the MCS’s classification of cod from the Irish and North Seas and from the west of Scotland as a “fish to avoid.”
While the MCS does place cod from these waters into its highest danger category, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive, Bertie Armstrong, said:
"Scottish fishing has tried extremely hard to be sustainable. Our beef about the Marine Conservation Society traffic light list of guidance is that it is superficial and illogical. If anybody buys fish in the United Kingdom then it has been fished within a quota and is entirely sustainable. That’s the measure of it."