Hake, cod, and anchovy populations are being driven towards extinction in European waters and fisheries ministers are meeting today to debate whether to cut catch quotas by up to 74 percent next year to save the most threatened stocks. During their annual meeting, the ministers usually talk about raising quotas to help fishers, but this year they have been warned by scientists that the fish populations are nearing dangerously low numbers. In particular, North Sea cod are threatened and the ministers may want to act now to avoid what occurred on Canada’s Atlantic seaboard, where the government imposed a full moratorium on cod fishing in the 1990s, throwing thousands out of work.
