Should I avoid eating cod because of declining cod stocks?

Answer 1

Use this site. For Cod, it says
"All North East Atlantic cod stocks are assessed as being overfished, however stocks in the North Sea, Irish Sea, West of Scotland, eastern Channel, eastern Baltic, Greenland, Skaggerak, Kattegat and Norwegian coast are the most heavily depleted. North East Arctic (Barents and Norwegian Sea), Icelandic and Faroese cod and the combined stock in ICES Area V11e-k are healthier, however, ICES recommends that fishing pressure on these stocks also be reduced. Avoid eating cod from stocks which are depleted and fishing levels unsustainable. To help reduce the impact of fishing on fish stocks where fishing mortality is too high, the marine environment and other marine species choose line-caught cod where available. Longlining can result in seabird by-catch, ask for fish caught using \\\'seabird-friendly\\\' methods, see Fishing Methods for details"

Answer 2

If you feel that you should avoid eating cod- which is entirely up to you, personally I'm indifferent- then there are a few extremely good substitutes, as mentioned by others. Personally, I think there's very little difference between Hoki and Cod, both are flaky white fish that taste similar.

However, if you want a good alternative which I feel won't be overfished for a little while yet, try looking for pollack.
You might not find it in fish and chip shops yet, but I'm pretty sure that Tesco sell it in their frozen section. It's still quite hard to find (bar Tesco), but it's relatively cheap, and very nice, in my opinion.

Answer 3

The short answer is yes. The UK produces a lot of really good quality fish but because the demand to fish and chip shops is mainly for cod - that's what they keep ordering. In Scotland it tends to be Haddock which is served and this tastes (in my opinion) exactly the same since it's deep fried and covered in batter.

The best alternative choice is similarly flavoured whitefish that is MSC-certified including pollock, hake, hoki, sablefish, and mackerel icefish.
Second choice is similarly flavoured whitefish from European waters including saithe, pollock, and haddock that are more plentiful than Atlantic cod.
For Atlantic cod itself the best choice is that caught legally by Iceland, Russia, or Norway, which fish the largest-remaining cod populations.
However, it is virtually impossible for consumers to know whether cod has been caught legally or not.

Answer 4

definately because the way cod life and their lifespan and breeding habits makes it very hard for the population to recover unless you leave them be and let them be able to live as naturally as possible.

Cod from a farmed source would be differently obviously as they are not from the wild declining populations.

I am a terrible person though coz I was tucking into a nice bit of fish and chips in the pub the other day thinking it was haddock and then turned out to be cod. I felt very bad.....but was a lovely dinner

Answer 5

you are not gonna extint the cod and think you might be alrighht to eat cod,

if you eat it someone else will have to know what its like to be cod

and then people will always follow the cods and then know that they are not extinct

its just that if the cod notice they are being taken when they feel diffrent where they go by chance you cant go by chance

Answer 6

It's totally up to you - what you decide will make absolutely no difference to cod stocks what-so-ever ..

Answer 7

no other wise there would be to much cod in the world and it would take up too much room and....ok im confused

Answer 8

Only eat the male ones.
Leave the females and baby ones.

Answer 9

You won't have to choose soon!