Cod Caught on a Snag

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

Nov 17 2002 (IPS) - The Antarctic cod, or icefish, is victim of its own popularity. The high demand for this fish in kitchens and restaurants around the world maintains intense fishing activity that could threaten the species very survival. But this argument has not been enough to win greater international legal protections for the cod. At the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), held in the Chilean capital this month, delegates rejected Australia's proposal to include the deep-sea cod in the Convention's Appendix II, which establishes strict regulations for international buying and selling of species that could become endangered.

The representatives voted unanimously, winning even the support of Australia, for a Chilean proposal that leaves the cod outside the CITES protections but under the vigilance of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Species (CCAMLR). This entails a documentation system that certifies the origin of the cod catches so authorities can distinguish between legal and illegal fishing operations.

Environmental organizations like the World Conservation Union (IUCN) had suggested that the protection measures afforded by the CCAMLR were not enough to halt the over-fishing of this much-sought-after species.

Greenpeace stated protests at the CITES meet in Santiago to demand the inclusion of the deep-sea cod in Appendix II. The international environmental group reports that illegal fishing of this cod species feeds a market of more than 500 million dollars annually.

The scientific name of the deep-sea cod is Dissostichus eleginoides, and is known in English as the Patagonian toothfish or the Chilean sea bass. In Spanish it is called the merluza negra, in French the légine australe, and in Russian the patagonsky klykach. The initial proposal to protect this species included another very similar fish, the Dissostichus mawsoni.

Deep-sea cod can weigh as much as 90 kilos, reach two meters in length and live 50 years. But the great size of these fish has its downside: their reproduction rate is slow and hatchlings take six to 10 years to reach maturity.

According to a document of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in 1999 Chile and Argentina were the two world leaders in catching the Antarctic cod.

The main problem for the species, however, is the practice of pirate fishing. A report by the U.S. government warns that the high price paid for the fish in markets and restaurants encourages illegal and unregulated fishing, which threatens the icefish population.

The Antarctic cod is fished in the seas surrounding Antarctica. But 90 percent of the catch is consumed in restaurants in Japan, United States and Europe.