The future for cod as a species in UK waters looks dire. That isn't simply my opinion. Fishery scientists throughout the European Union regularly point this out to ministers who then ignore them to set un-realistic quota's that will eventually push the species over the edge. In my life time the demise of the cod has been startlingly obvious, and I'm sure that if anglers before my time had seen what we had 30 years ago, they would have said that we had wasn't that good either. Then, every so often, we seem to get little flurries of fish which give us some false optimism. But if we are honest, the writing is well and truly on the wall. And if you think that such a once prolific species cannot be wiped out, then look at the Grand Banks which were subjected to the same TAC (Total Allowable Catch) calculations used by EU scientists. When that fishery collapsed some years ago, research vessels dragging huge nets for miles couldn't catch one single cod, and its still pretty much the same today.

There are many reasons, often conspiring together, why a fishery might collapse. UK commercial fishermen are as guilty as the rest of the EU in wanting to continue when sustainability is under threat. But EU fishery policy has been one of the main contributory factors. Its hard to get fishery ministers from the rest of the EU to agree to curtail the activities of their constituents coming over here and cleaning up what in effect is somebody else's (our) fish. And for those that think stopping other fishing fleets coming in and stealing our fish is not at least part of the answer, then take a look at the example of two cod rich counties I am familiar with – Iceland and Norway. Neither has membership of the EU, and both conserve their stocks by fishing for them in sustainable ways. Much of their inshore fishing is done with hooks, either baited or dressed as lures, fished from automated jigging machines. Only mature target species are taken with anything discarded able to swim away instead of being gull fodder.

Back in the 1970's we had the 'Cod Wars' when Icelandic gunboats squared up to the UK's deep water fleet protected by the Royal Navy in an effort to impose a unilateral 200 mile exclusion limit around their country. Iceland has little in the way of natural resources, so you can't really blame them for wanting to conserve the one real resource they had – fish. The British government and UK commercial fishermen however didn't see it that way. Confrontation between our armed forces and theirs was almost a daily occurrence, as boats like Thor and Odin went in with the cutting gear to crop the towing warps of British trawlers. I bet with hindsight, there are some British commercial fishermen who deep down in their heart of hearts wish the Icelanders had won, and that we had taken a similar stance. Then perhaps we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now.

Some years ago when I visited Iceland for the first time, I stayed at a small fishing town called Akranes. As most people in Iceland (as elsewhere these days) spoke good English, they were keen to know what my opinion was regarding the Cod War's. As you might imagine, I left them under no illusion at all, adding that the sooner the Royal Navy began tackling other EU trawlers in a similar way the better. I then asked them how exactly the cutting gear used by the gun boats had worked. Rather than telling me, they went one better by taking me to a small building in the town where the actual cutting gear used, which was made locally, was on display, and let me handle the actual cutters. I was amazed at just how simple and small they were. A sort of weighted grapnel with blades set into one edge of a narrowing slot which was towed by the gun boats until it hooked onto the trawl warps, eventually cutting through them. So simple, yet so effective. A good engineer could knock one up in a couple of hours. Meanwhile European Fishery Ministers squabble and the decline of our cod stocks goes into free fall.