Fish stocks around Britain have been reduced to 10 per cent of what they were 100 years ago due to overfishing. Common skate and angel fish are already extinct while favourites like cod are in danger of being wiped out.
The European Union has been trying to help fish stocks recover by introducing quotas for every country under the Common Fisheries Policy.
However scientists have said that unless the system is completely overhauled fish stocks will continue to deplete to the point of extinction by 2048, leaving consumers little option but to eat jellyfish or the small bony species left behind at the bottom of the ocean.
New fishing quotas are to be set this week by Europe.
Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of York, said the system is failing to work because ministers haev not heeded the advice of scientists. He said that quotas are consistently around a quarter higher than scientists advise, meaning fish stocks are unable to recover.
"It's a waste of taxpayers' money to develop fisheries advice and science across Europe and then ignore it at the decision-making stage," he said.
Prof Roberts said that in the 1970s three-quarters of Europe's fish were in a healthy or slightly at risk state, but today more than half the EU's stocks were in danger. Another reason the quota system is not working is the problem of discard. An estimated one million tons of fish is dumped in the North Sea every year because it is over quota, the wrong species or too small.
He said that unless the system is improved, fish stocks in UK waters could dwindle to the point of extinction within decades.
"If we do not change our ways we will have less and less to catch... so jelly fish could end up on the menu as opposed to cod in our fish and chips," he said.
"We could be eating very small, bony fish that live on the ocean floor like sculpin, thornyheads and gurnards.
David Agnew of Imperial College London, said there was "no question of running out of fish".
But he said EU fisheries were not in a very good state, with the cod recovery plan put in place by the EU failing to reduce fishing pressure on the species enough to allow stocks to recover.
Mike Kaiser, Professor of Marine Conservation Ecology at the University of Bangor, said it was not just the UK that needs to improve its act but the whole of the EU.
"We've got to the point now in the UK where we realise that things have got to change," he said. "The problem is that's only one nation. If we are rowing against the tide as a nation it'll have very little impact.
"The European Commission has to get hold of this issue right across the member states. It's absolutely imperative other nations play their part in this difficult job that needs to be undertaken."
telegraph.
The European Union has been trying to help fish stocks recover by introducing quotas for every country under the Common Fisheries Policy.
However scientists have said that unless the system is completely overhauled fish stocks will continue to deplete to the point of extinction by 2048, leaving consumers little option but to eat jellyfish or the small bony species left behind at the bottom of the ocean.
New fishing quotas are to be set this week by Europe.
Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of York, said the system is failing to work because ministers haev not heeded the advice of scientists. He said that quotas are consistently around a quarter higher than scientists advise, meaning fish stocks are unable to recover.
"It's a waste of taxpayers' money to develop fisheries advice and science across Europe and then ignore it at the decision-making stage," he said.
Prof Roberts said that in the 1970s three-quarters of Europe's fish were in a healthy or slightly at risk state, but today more than half the EU's stocks were in danger. Another reason the quota system is not working is the problem of discard. An estimated one million tons of fish is dumped in the North Sea every year because it is over quota, the wrong species or too small.
He said that unless the system is improved, fish stocks in UK waters could dwindle to the point of extinction within decades.
"If we do not change our ways we will have less and less to catch... so jelly fish could end up on the menu as opposed to cod in our fish and chips," he said.
"We could be eating very small, bony fish that live on the ocean floor like sculpin, thornyheads and gurnards.
David Agnew of Imperial College London, said there was "no question of running out of fish".
But he said EU fisheries were not in a very good state, with the cod recovery plan put in place by the EU failing to reduce fishing pressure on the species enough to allow stocks to recover.
Mike Kaiser, Professor of Marine Conservation Ecology at the University of Bangor, said it was not just the UK that needs to improve its act but the whole of the EU.
"We've got to the point now in the UK where we realise that things have got to change," he said. "The problem is that's only one nation. If we are rowing against the tide as a nation it'll have very little impact.
"The European Commission has to get hold of this issue right across the member states. It's absolutely imperative other nations play their part in this difficult job that needs to be undertaken."
telegraph.
