Please sign our petition to save Britain's cod

Please sign our petition to save Britain’s cod

Dear friend of Blue Marine,

How many of you have memories of enjoying cod and chips by the sea in the summer while shooing away the seagulls or as a cosy Friday night takeaway?

For centuries, we have been fishing for cod and our fishers and coastal communities have benefitted from this lucrative trade.

Cod is a huge part of British culture. Charles Dickens mentions a ‘fried fish warehouse’ in his
1839 novel Oliver Twist. Unlike most other foods, cod was not rationed during the world wars. In 1999, the British consumed nearly 300 million servings of fish and chips.

So, what if we told you that this iconic species is disappearing from our own home waters – a trend masked by the fact that most cod sold in fish and chip shops now comes from Iceland or Norway?

Every year, the UK Government is advised by top fishery scientists within the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea to set catch limits for cod which are sustainable and would allow us to keep fishing for cod and eating it for generations to come.

However, every year, the UK Government and the EU ignore the science and allow
fishermen to catch more fish than scientists advise. The result? The five breeding populations of cod in UK waters have been so overfished that some have actually collapsed.

The situation is now dire. West of Scotland cod has declined by 92 per cent since 1981, Celtic Sea cod has fallen by 88 per cent since 1980, and Irish Sea cod has declined by 89 per cent from 1968.

Blue Marine – in partnership with the National Federation of Fish Friers and around 100 other environmental groups in the Scottish coalition, Our Seas – are calling on the UK Government to set catch limits for all UK cod populations at sustainable levels.

We want cod to return to our waters and which will help our marine ecosystems to recover and improve the livelihoods of our UK fishermen and give greater security to other businesses dependent on cod, such as fish and chip shops which have been hit by the higher price of cooking oils and sanctions on Russian cod.