by Emily Beament and Victoria Weldon

SCOTTISH fishermen have welcomed a move by conservationists to take North Sea cod off a red list of “fish to avoid” eating, but claimed it will make no difference to the work they are doing.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) says the fishery is showing signs of recovery for the first time after years of reduced fishing and efforts to avoid catching cod in mixed fisheries.

The improvement has led the MCS, which assesses seafood on a traffic light system and a one to five rating where one is the most sustainable, to raise the fishery to an “amber” rating and a level four recommendation meaning it should be eaten only very occasionally.

However, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) claims the fish should never have been classified as a fish to avoid in the first place.

The group also believes the improvements in stock are down to fishermen – including those based in Peterhead and Shetland – ensuring they catch sustainably and not the fact that it was put on a list to avoid.

Bertie Armstrong, SFF chief executive, argued that the MCS decision would not change fishermen’s behaviours and warned that the traffic light system was “illogical”.

He said: “What then happens to the fish on the fishmongers’ slab which has been caught in accordance with quotas? It’s dead, it was caught sustainably, if you tell people not to buy it, it’s going to go to waste and the fish died for nothing.

“It’s a matter of extreme arrogance and we feel the MCS traffic light system is completely illogical.” However, he added that, while he did not agree with 
the system, the reclassification was still welcome as “anything that says fish stocks are healthy is a good thing”.

Despite the improvement, MCS warned cod may never return to its pre-collapse glory days and more effort was needed to boost its populations to healthy levels. 
Nine other, smaller, cod fisheries in the North East Atlantic remain red-listed by the society, including those fished from the West of Scotland, the Irish Sea and Celtic Sea.

MCS fisheries officer Samuel Stone said: “It’s fantastic to see this fishery finally off the red list. 

“Years of sacrifice and a lot of hard work have led to population increases above dangerously low levels.

“While this is certainly a milestone for North Sea cod, the job is not done yet.
“Efforts of recent years need to continue in order for the fishery to head towards the green end of the spectrum.”

He said cod numbers needed to rise and catches should be further reduced down to levels where they are being fished without depleting the population, with all cod stocks in the UK still being fished above that level.

Decades of overfishing which reduced populations and the size and age of cod, along with the warming of the region’s seas, have cut the reproductive success of the cod in the North Sea, the MCS said.

With the seas continuing to warm, the slower and lower the recovery may be.
Responding to Mr Armstrong’s criticism of the traffic light system, MCS fisheries officer Bernadette Clark said: “When he talks about fish being caught sustainably, I think he’s referring to the legality of the fishery. 

“If there’s a legal quote and it’s being caught within the constraints of that, then of course we would agree that it’s legal, but we would not necessarily agree that it’s sustainable.”

She added that MCS “strongly believes” that consumers can help to turn fish stocks around and argued that the MCS system is a good way of making the public aware of the state of the fish stocks.