Are you codding me?

Across the length and breadth of the British Isles tears were shed this month about the threat to the national dish of Fish & Chips. All those treasured moments of tucking into a parcel of piping hot chips and a crispy fish portion doused in salt and vinegar (with an optional side serving of mushy peas) came flooding back in an emotional torrent. And what caused this national meltdown? A false report in a leading national newspaper which stated “Fewer than 100 mature cod are left in the North Sea.” (The North Sea is located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France). In fact, far from declining, cod stocks are improving due to sustainable fishing initiatives and a reduction in fish discards, with Scotland playing a leading role.
Brian Buchan, who has fished the North Sea waters for over thirty years, expressed the fury of his colleagues who feel the report has undermined their best efforts to protect cod stocks. “It just makes my blood boil – 100 cod left? There’s more like 100 million cod in the North Sea,” he said.
Fisheries Secretary, Richard Lochhead, said: “Misleading statements on the state of our fisheries — and cod stocks in particular — have been unhelpful and a distraction from the laudable efforts of Scottish fishermen to support fish recovery.”
He added, “Our catch quota trials using CCTV monitoring have been able to eliminate cod discards for the fishermen involved, while under the Scottish Conservation Credits Scheme, vessels use more selective fishing gear to avoid catching undersized and unwanted fish in the first place.”
The mistake in the newspaper occurred due to a misunderstanding of data relating to the age of cod.
As the UK’s chief fisheries science adviser, Dr. Carl O’Brien, explained, “Cod start to mature at ages one and two and they are fully mature by six. So we shouldn’t be surprised that there are very few cod aged over 13 ( in fact fewer than 60 have been recorded in the North Sea in the past 30 years), just as we shouldn’t be surprised that there aren’t very many humans over 100.”
Some cod do live to a maximum age of 25 — for example, cod found in the Barents Sea (north of Norway and Russia), but North Sea cod do not live this long.
So let’s just tot up the estimated numbers of the mature cod population in the North Sea. 100? No — adjust that figure upwards a little —– to about 21 million. And for overall cod stocks across the generations, the total estimated figure is 436,900,000.
So the efforts made to halt the decline in cod stocks appear to be paying off, after decades of concern over a serious decline.
Fish & Chips look safe for the moment — and that newspaper story should prove ideal for fish wrappings — what a load of cod!