Editor's note

As a perennial choice for a fish and chip dinner, cod stocks have been in almost continual decline since the 1960s. So it was to great fanfare when in 2017 North Sea stocks were certified sustainable. But just two years later, the Marine Stewardship Council was forced to withdraw its coveted certification, which left many wondering what could have gone so badly wrong for Britain’s favourite fish in such a short space of time. Could the scientists have got it wrong? Perhaps cod stocks hadn’t recovered at all.

Robin Cook, who was involved in evaluating North Sea cod for the MSC certification and again in its suspension, believes the health of the cod stocks was overstated by weak scientific evidence. New detailed data published by the body that provides official scientific advice to governments show that there were much fewer fish than previously thought – and a higher rate of cod being fished.

While policy changes have brought some moments of recovery, they can’t sustain large-scale fishing long term. And without a strict regime of catch limitation and precautionary management, a sustainable cod fishery in the North Sea will remain wishful thinking.

The former French president, Jacques Chirac, has died at the age of 86 – a political bulldozer to some, a man with a wanting legacy to others. And as the global economy slows, the Bank of England has a nail-biting decision to make on interest rates in the face of a no-deal Brexit.

Jack Marley

Commissioning Editor

Top stories

Ingrid Maasik/Shutterstock

North Sea cod should never have been labelled sustainable in the first place

Robin Cook, University of Strathclyde

A combination of flawed science and over-optimism meant experts misinterpreted the data that helped calculate estimates of cod stocks back in 2017.

Jacques Chirac (here in 2005) was a defining figure in French politics after May 1968. World Economic Forum/Flickr

Jacques Chirac, 1932-2019: a political bulldozer

Pierre Bréchon, Sciences Po Grenoble

A look back at the distinguished career of the former president, an ardent defender of France's place in the world.

Monetary trouble ahead. Shutterstock

Why the Bank of England will struggle to stop the economic fallout of a hard Brexit – and could even make it worse

Huw Macartney, University of Birmingham

Neither an interest rate cut nor an interest rate rise are out of the question if there's a hard Brexit.

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