This article in the Times makes me want to throw my hands up in despair at the world. Only now are people realising what scientists have been saying for years - that cod stocks are collapsing. We've passed the point of no return and yet people are still talking in terms of possibilities.
This makes me so angry! Talk about linear thinking.
"The main problem is that although cod catches have been cut to 26,500 tonnes a year, more than twice that amount is being caught in bycatches by fishermen chasing other species such as haddock, whiting, hake and plaice. Fishermen accidentally caught about 50,000 tonnes of cod last year, and have to throw the dead fish back in the sea because it is classed as an illegal catch."
Has it not occurred to anyone to call the bycatch the catch, and just not go chasing the 26,500 tonnes of cod that are caught as a main catch each year? Quotas exist to protect fish stocks, but in this case they are trebling the number of cod caught and killed each year, and for no appreciable benefit to anybody. It is like buying three Mercedes and then driving two off a cliff because you only have space in your garage for one car. It is insane.
Don't they realise what they are doing?
