The cod quota for the North Sea in 2019 should be slashed by 47 percent, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has recommended.
After years of positive development, North Sea cod is again estimated to be the most limiting stock in the Greater North Sea mixed-fisheries model, the council said.
Therefore it has advised that when the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) approach is applied, next year’s cod catch should be no more than 28,204 metric tons (MT), down from this year’s agreed total allowable catch (TAC) of 43,156 MT.
ICES scientists attributed the change in advice to a combination of three elements:
• A change in perception of stock size and recent recruitment with the addition of one extra year of data.
• A reduction in the advised fish mortality.
• An extremely low recruitment estimated for 2018.
It has also been advised that the North Sea’s haddock catch in 2019 should not exceed 35,761 MT, which would represent a reduction of 27 percent compared with this year’s TAC.
Recruitment has tended to be lower since 2000, and despite occasionally larger year classes the magnitude of these has been decreasing, said ICES.
