North Sea Fish Stocks Cod at historically low level

Trends in spawning stock biomass vary from species to species and stocks can fluctuate substantially over relatively short periods. Most stocks are over-exploited and some stocks are at historically low levels, especially North Sea cod.

The North Sea herring population was seriously affected by over-fishing in the 1970s. The closure of the North Sea fishery between 1978 and 1982 allowed stocks to recover. From the late 1980s there was another decline in stocks of North Sea herring. This recovered again from the mid 1990s and in 2002 the stock was at the highest level since 1965.

In 2002, just under a third of reported fish stocks were assessed to be inside safe biological limits. Those stocks that were outside safe biological limits had spawning levels that were insufficient to allow a good probability of stock replenishment, as a result of insufficient spawning levels or exploitation rates that were too high.