A recent study being carried out by the Marine Institute in the Celtic Sea showed that cod can grow quickly and to large sizes there. It is said that Thousands of tagged cod have been released there with the aim of determining conditions for the fish around the Irish coast. North Sea cod have been on danger radar of dying without a complete fishing ban.
It is found that more than 80 percent of cod caught in European waters is eaten in Britain and Ireland But the taste for cod has dangerously depleted stocks. Tight fishing quotas were introduced in 2004 and campaigners have urged retailers to sell only cod from sustainable sources. Much of the cod now consumed in western Europe is from sustainable sources, such as Iceland, the Barents Sea, or from the Baltic, where over-fishing has not been such a problem.
Marine Institute funded with monies administered under the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) National Development Plan over the last two years, 4,000 cod have been tagged and released by Marine Institute scientists working aboard commercial fishing vessels from Dunmore East. The project is designed to study the growth and migration of both the inshore juvenile fish and the offshore adult spawning stock.
Till recently near about 10 percent of the tagged fish have been returned by a combination of fishermen, anglers and processors from Ireland, UK, Spain and France, according to Macdara O Cuaig, a scientist with the Fisheries Science Services team of the Marine Institute. It is told that this fish had a 16-fold increase in weight in just 15 months. This demonstrates the potential yield possible from the Celtic Sea cod stock.
