An alliance of more than a hundred organisations is supporting a new 'save our seas' campaign to force the government to halt the dramatic decline of cod described as a "national disgrace".

The Our Seas alliance, is supporting a fight to address the "dire state" of cod populations particularly in the west of Scotland which pressure groups say have declined by a "shocking" 92% since 1981.

It comes as concerns surfaced that government has failed to take their own scientific experts' advice for nearly 20 years to prevent the obliteration of cod stocks off Scotland in what has been described as a "national scandal".

The Herald on Sunday revealed that despite the advice of The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the world's oldest intergovernmental science organization which has expected no catches of cod off the west coast of Scotland since 2004 - it estimated that that there has been 43,504 tonnes either landed or discarded. Some conservationists believe that may be an underestimate.

It has been confirmed that cod in the North Sea has lost its sustainability certification for a fourth year due to continuing worries about stock levels. While ICES has provided consistent advice to stop catching cod off the west coast, government has consistently set an allowable catch.

Conservationists have condemned government officials, including the Scottish Government for failing to do enough to protect cod stocks across Scotland.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is today being used to launch the campaign to bring back cod.

The British marine conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation says that the UK Government, responsible for setting catch limits for all British stocks in collaboration with others including the Scottish Government, has "ignored" scientific advice to halt the stock’s decline for more than a third of a century.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) publishes its recommendations for sustainable Total Allowable Catches (TACs) annually.

Scrutiny of this advice against quotas by the charity shows 35 consecutive years of catch limits set above recommended limits.

They say two thirds of all catch limits for fish stocks the UK shares with the EU and Norway are set above scientific advice.

The Herald:

The charity says cod is also caught as bycatch while Scottish fishermen net for haddock or langoustines, also known as prawns or Nephrops, and the combined pressure has led to the "near collapse" of the west of Scotland cod population in the last four decades.

The campaign calls on the British public to sign a petition urging the UK Government to better manage near-collapsed cod populations around Scotland and the rest of the British Isles and set sustainable catch limits which will allow stocks to recover.

Charles Clover, executive director of Blue Marine Foundation, who has published a book which introduces the possibility of restoring the sea to health by “rewilding” it said: “Rewilding is only possible if there is enough biodiversity or habitat to regenerate naturally, and, simply put, time is running out for cod.

"The Government cannot feign surprise when presented with these irrefutable facts – for every decade the science has been ignored, the stock population has plummeted - and we are now at risk losing one of the nation’s most iconic fish from our waters. We urgently need a cod recovery plan that must first address unsustainable catches.”

Before the enactment of the Inshore Fishing (Scotland) Act in 1984, there was, since 1889, a ban of bottom trawling within three miles of the coast providing “coastal fringe of largely undisturbed marine life”.

The Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF) is pushing Holyrood to reinstate and expand on the 19th-century law by introduce a variation of the three-mile ban on trawling in certain areas.

It says the the scrapping of the three-mile law was has contributed to the “complete collapse” of certain fish stocks along Scotland’s coasts.

A spokesman from the Our Seas coalition, made up of a range of organisations, including inshore fishing associations, community groups, sea anglers, tourism businesses, and environmental organisations, said: “The tragic decline of inshore fish populations in Scotland, such as west coast cod is a national disgrace, witnessed and experienced by coastal communities across Scotland.

The Herald:

"The decline was hastened by the removal of the three-mile limit, which until 1984 protected fish nursery grounds with a ban on bottom-trawling close to shore.

"The Scottish Government now urgently needs to protect our inshore seabed by reinstating an inshore limit on dredging and bottom trawling to revive fish populations for future generations.

"In the meantime, the continued wasteful bycatch of young, small whitefish from prawn trawl fisheries is preventing population recovery."

They are concerned that the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs committee recently heard that there are approximately 3.5m cod in the Clyde, and yet a shocking two million of them are being caught accidentally every year by Nephrops trawlers as bycatch.

"Decision-makers need to engage with the scientific evidence presented and take action," the coaliton said.

The campaigners say that cod fisheries provide important income to coastal communities and some ports, particularly in Scotland and in north east England which are highly dependent on their continued productivity.

And they say that cod is also an important commodity for fish and chips shops, a third of which are facing risk of closure due to high tariffs on imports of cod.

Andrew Crook, President of the National Federation of Fish Friers, said: “Going forward we are going to need to use more of the domestic catch, so we need to fish in a controlled way so as not to damage the ecosystem. The UK should look to manage its cod stocks well like Norway, Iceland and Greenland whose cod fisheries are certified as sustainable. Improved management of our domestic cod stocks would help businesses like fish and chip shops that depend on cod to remain resilient to external market shocks.”

The petition newly lodged with the UK Government says: "There are five cod stocks around the UK, all of which are overfished. Four are so badly overfished that populations are at risk of collapse. Every year, catch limits are determined in negotiations between the UK, EU and Norway and every year the UK ignores the science and allows overfishing."

"We need thriving cod populations around the UK for the health of our seas, our people and our businesses that depend on cod. However, the situation is dire. Despite continued warnings about the perilous condition of the stock, the UK set catch limits far above sustainable levels. The UK must set catch limits at sustainable levels to allow cod populations to replenish themselves and flourish in our seas, for us all."

Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation said that it was "widely recognised" that stock assessment that generates catch advice for cod in our waters needs be revised as it was based on the distribution of fish several decades ago.

"The SFF has been working collaboratively with Marine Scotland in the designation and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and if areas or features in inshore areas are found to need extra protection, there are well established systems in place for their inclusion in the existing management frameworks, based on objective scientific evidence," she said.

"The SFF therefore believes there is no basis in the evidence for the environmental non-governmental organizations' sustainability claims. There are so many unknowns about Scotland’s inshore fisheries such as stock status, exact number of creels deployed, the number of ‘ghost’ creels on the seabed. We would welcome greater dialogue about better understanding of inshore fisheries to address these and other questions. "

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We take our responsibility to balance the competing pressures on the marine environment seriously and the Scottish Government’s management of its fisheries is well respected internationally.

“Scotland’s seas and waters have a key role to play in contributing to the nation’s future economic prosperity, especially in remote, rural and island communities and we have always sought to deliver the best outcome for our fishing interests through securing sustainable catching opportunities. It is important to work within environmental limits, making sure fish stocks are managed sustainably and, in turn, providing a resource for future generations and safeguarding the diversity of the marine ecosystem.

“Negotiations for setting catch limits and quotas take full account of sustainability principles, are informed by high quality science, and take account of wider considerations such as socio-economic implications.

“To enhance protection of the marine environment, earlier this year we published our draft future catching policy for consultation. This policy sets out a range of measures to ensure that fishing activity within Scottish waters is operating sustainably and responsibly. We are also committed to introducing management measures for the Marine Protected Area network and introducing Highly Protected Marine Areas.”

A UK government spokesman said: "The UK advocates an approach towards setting Total Allowable Catches for cod stocks and other species that is founded on the best available scientific advice, which seeks to maintain or rebuild sustainable fish stocks and fisheries in the long term.

"A low quota has been set for several years for West of Scotland cod to allow for the fact that some cod will inevitably be caught as by-catch when targeting other stocks in the area. "International scientists have recommended a 44% increase in the 2023 quota for the stock of North Sea Cod, a sign that the stock is starting to recover, albeit from a low base.