Countdown for cod.

Once thought of as a resource without end, fishermen are finally bumping up against limits in the world's cod stocks (see "A Run on the Banks," feature, March/April 2001). In North America, the catch has declined by 90 percent since the early 1980s, forcing the closing of once-thriving fisheries. Now under threat is the stock in the Barents Sea, which is fished by Russia and Norway.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), this year's cod quotas have been set "100,000 tons over what is considered sustainable by scientists." The group adds that a further 100,000 tons of cod is thought to be caught illegally every year.

Scientists are finding that the majority of the cod spawning in the sea are getting younger and younger because mature fish have already been caught. "Eggs and larvae of first-time spawners are less likely to successfully develop into fish," the WWF adds. The Barents Sea is itself under threat from climate change, petroleum exploration, heavy shipping traffic and lightly regulated cod farming (which threatens wild populations through interbreeding with escaped farm fish). "Over-fishing continues because policies are driven by short-term economic and political interests," says WWF's Helen Davies. CONTACT: World Wildlife Fund, [phone], www.wwf.org.