SIFT has worked for many years to improve the management of the Firth of Clyde cod fishery. Formerly a substantial commercial activity, the Clyde cod fishery has been closed for over two decades and subject to a management regime aiming, but failing, to restore stocks to a sufficient level to enable the re-opening of fishing.
(Photo credit: Viviane M)
A history of Clyde cod
Clyde cod constitute a discrete substock which once dominated the local ecosystem. The stock historically supported a thriving commercial fishery, as well as a large recreational angling sector. However, overfishing in the 20th century led to the collapse of the cod stocks, as well as a centuries-old herring fishery in the 1970s. By the early 2000s, the remaining fisheries in the Firth of Clyde had become almost exclusively for shellfish: targeting Nephrops (by both trawling and creeling), scallop, crab and lobster.
Attempts at recovery
In 2001, an annual 11-week seasonal fishing closure was implemented in areas of the Firth of Clyde to protect spawning cod with the aim of recovering depleted cod stocks. Despite various iterations of the closure, since its implementation there has been no evidence of stock recovery. Research published in 2025 confirmed what many stakeholders has long believed: that recovery was impossible while the high level of cod bycatch in Nephrops trawl nets continues.
Recent developments
In 2026, the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee voted to annul the latest version of the Scottish Government’s proposed spawning ground closures, on the basis that the proposal bore no relationship with the underlying evidence that cod-recovery was primarily hindered by the failure to reduce cod bycatch in Nephrops trawls. SIFT was pleased by this decision, which it had been calling for with other stakeholders. Disappointingly, the Scottish Government replaced the proposal with a similar, but voluntary measure, thereby continuing to ensure that cod recovery is implausible in the coming years.
The way forward
SIFT continues to campaign on this important issue. The Clyde cod fishery is representative of much of Scotland’s inshore fishery management: proven unsuccessful and partial measures, not supported by stakeholders, which perpetuate the loss of diversity and hence resilience of the fishery and are not based upon research evidence, without regard to the many legislative objectives of the UK Fisheries Act 2020 are maintained in order to protect a small and diminishing fishery sector – in this instance Nephrops trawl fishery.
In an era when climatic change is causing major challenges to inshore fisheries – the growth of octopus numbers in southern England in 2025, which massively harmed the traditional shellfishery is a case in point – it is vital that management measures follow scientific evidence and work to promote ecosystem recovery and the subsequent fisheries diversity.
