Guidance
UK National North Sea Cod Avoidance Plan
UK National North Sea Cod Avoidance Plan
- From:
- Marine Management Organisation
- Published
- 4 January 2021
- Last updated
-
1821 January20232025 — See all updates
Documents

Details
This UK plan seeks to address two key issues:
- to support recovery of the North Sea cod stock and,
- to support the fishing industry to manage their quota in line with the reduced TAC that was set in 2020.
Real Time Closures (RTCs) and Real Time Reporting (RTR) in particular will help manage quota issues for the fleet. This plan mainly focuses on spatial measures to avoid catching an abundance of cod. Whilst spatial measures are difficult to quantify, our previous experience of using spatial measures such as RTCs (particularly during the Cod Recovery Plan) demonstrates that such measures can have an observable effect on cod mortality and biomass.
The UK National North Sea Cod Avoidance plan outlines the following;
- Spawning/Seasonal Closures
- Real Time Closures
- Real Time Reporting
- Selectivity – Fish and Mud areas (For English vessels this provision is only applicable in Scottish waters IV)
Updates to this page
Published 4 January 2021
Last updated 1821 January 2023
2025
+ show all updates
-
UK National North Sea Cod Avoidance Plan - update
-
January update
-
Sign up for emails or print this page
Details
This UK plan seeks to address two key issues:
- to support recovery of the North Sea cod stock and,
- to support the fishing industry to manage their quota in line with the reduced TAC that was set in 2020.
Real Time Closures (RTCs) and Real Time Reporting (RTR) in particular will help manage quota issues for the fleet. This plan mainly focuses on spatial measures to avoid catching an abundance of cod. Whilst spatial measures are difficult to quantify, our previous experience of using spatial measures such as RTCs (particularly during the Cod Recovery Plan) demonstrates that such measures can have an observable effect on cod mortality and biomass.
The UK National North Sea Cod Avoidance plan outlines the following;
- Spawning/Seasonal Closures
- Real Time Closures
- Real Time Reporting
- Selectivity – Fish and Mud areas (For English vessels this provision is only applicable in Scottish waters IV)
Updates to this page
Published 4 January 2021
Last updated 1821 January 2023
2025
+ show all updates
-
UK National North Sea Cod Avoidance Plan - update
-
January update
-
Sign up for emails or print this page
Details
This UK plan seeks to address two key issues:
- to support recovery of the North Sea cod stock and,
- to support the fishing industry to manage their quota in line with the reduced TAC that was set in 2020.
Real Time Closures (RTCs) and Real Time Reporting (RTR) in particular will help manage quota issues for the fleet. This plan mainly focuses on spatial measures to avoid catching an abundance of cod. Whilst spatial measures are difficult to quantify, our previous experience of using spatial measures such as RTCs (particularly during the Cod Recovery Plan) demonstrates that such measures can have an observable effect on cod mortality and biomass.
The UK National North Sea Cod Avoidance plan outlines the following;
- Spawning/Seasonal Closures
- Real Time Closures
- Real Time Reporting
- Selectivity – Fish and Mud areas (For English vessels this provision is only applicable in Scottish waters IV)
Updates to this page
Published 4 January 2021Last updated
-
UK National North Sea Cod Avoidance Plan - update
-
January update