Munich

Cod on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean face contrasting prospects as authorities in North America and Europe try to conserve their once-plentiful stocks.

Late last month, the Canadian fisheries ministry ordered an end to all fishing of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in three regions off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. It also set up a Can$50-million (US$36-million) action plan to assist fishermen and communities that will be affected.

But such closures are not yet envisaged in Europe — although fisheries experts are calling for a similar moratorium. Last week, the European Commission outlined a ten-year recovery plan for cod, which calls for lower catch quotas and a better monitoring system.

Although cod stocks in the North and Irish Seas have declined by 90% since the 1960s, some Canadian populations are down by more than 99%. Cod in warmer European waters reach maturity at an earlier age — an advantage in terms of reproductive ability.

On 2 May, the independent Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) recognized Atlantic cod as an endangered species after finding that some stocks face imminent extinction.

“If Canadian cod is threatened by extinction, this should ring alarm bells in Europe,” says Georgina Mace, scientific director of the Institute of Zoology in London, and a member of a committee that identifies endangered species at the World Conservation Union.

“Harvesting large long-lived species on a sustainable basis is much more difficult than we used to believe. Populations don't seem to bounce back just because fishing effort is being reduced for a while,” Mace says.

COSEWIC member Jeff Hutchings, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has shown that depleted fish populations do not recover easily when fishing pressure is reduced or stopped (see Nature 419, 662–665; 2002). “This is another reason not to let populations drop below a critical size,” he says. “Fisheries managers in Europe should take note.”

But limiting fisheries without offering fishermen a viable alternative is unrealistic, argues Colin Bannister, of the UK government's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science in Suffolk. “As much is being done as can be done, bearing in mind the socio-economic situation,” he says.

In Europe, some half-a-million people make a living from fisheries, including shipbuilding and repair. Attempts to reduce fleets or quotas have met fierce opposition.

Last December, thousands of British fishermen took to the streets in an unsuccessful protest against tighter European Union (EU) quotas on cod fishing. These were brought in on the basis of advice from the Copenhagen-based International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (see Nature 419, 866; 2002).

Scientists, however, hope that the long-planned fisheries reform will maintain its momentum, and that scientific advice will gain more influence on European policy.

“Europe has got to get out of the old system where lobbying of the fisheries industry and disagreement between EU member states have each year watered down the best available scientific advice,” says John Reynolds, a marine ecologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

Bannister welcomes the European Commission's plan to set up regional advisory bodies that will incorporate different interest groups, including fishermen and scientists.

In Canada such efforts are well under way already. Next month, scientists, fishermen and industry representatives at the third North Atlantic Responsible Fishing Conference in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, will discuss the scientific, social and economic issues related to fishing.