- GENEVA (Reuters) - Cod could
be extinct within 15 years unless governments rein in fishing of the species,
the environmental group World Wildlife Fund said Thursday.
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- "(The) global cod catch has suffered a 70 percent
drop over the last 30 years, and if such a trend continues, the world's
cod stocks will disappear in 15 years," the group said.
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- By 2002, the world's annual cod catch had fallen to 890,000
tonnes from 3.1 million tonnes in 1970.
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- In the Arctic Barents Sea, which accounts for around
half of the world's annual catch, the situation is not as reassuring as
is often depicted, it added in a statement.
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- In a report "The Barents Sea Cod," the environmental
group said fish quotas in those Arctic waters for 2004 are 100,000 tonnes
over what is considered sustainable by scientists and a further 100,000
tonnes are caught illegally.
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- It called on Russia and Norway, which jointly manage
Barents Sea fishing, to set stricter cod quotas and to implement tighter
controls on all fishing activities there.
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- "Only sound management ... by Russian and Norwegian
governments will ensure the long sustainability of the world's largest
cod stock," it warned.
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