Seals threaten Scottish cod stock recovery

PREDATORY seals are constraining the recovery of cod stocks in Scottish west coast waters, research by the suggests. The study found that, although fishing has now halved, predation by seals has rapidly increased to compensate, eating up more than 40 per cent of the total stock. Seals have, historically, been anecdotally blamed for the reduction of Atlantic cod stocks. Grey seals are believed to consume nearly 7,000 tonnes of cod each year off the west of Scotland, where landed catches now amount to only a few hundred tonnes. Read the rest here 20:40

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