Government response

Myth Bust: The Sunday Times claims that there are ‘fewer than 100 mature cod are left in the North Sea’

The myth: An article in The Sunday Times claimed that ‘fewer than 100 mature cod are left in the North Sea’. The truth: This is completely…

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 18 September 2012

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The myth: An article in The Sunday Times claimed that ‘fewer than 100 mature cod are left in the North Sea’.

The truth: This is completely wrong, in fact we know there to be around 21 million mature cod in the north sea. Cod start to mature from a year old and are fully mature at age six.  There are a small number of cod over the age of 12 years old which has always been the case in the North Sea even when fished at lower levels in the 1950s and 1960s. Cod older than 15 have rarely been recorded in the North Sea.

Published 18 September 2012