EU agrees cod stocks rescue plans

European fisheries ministers have agreed a plan aimed at increasing dwindling cod stocks.

The new plans envisage using better nets that allow smaller cod to escape, as well as closing certain areas to fishing when cod are spawning.

Ministers have admitted the plan will be difficult for fishermen to achieve.

But they say the incentive will be larger quotas in areas like the North Sea, where cod stocks are beginning to recover.

Under current regulations, around half of the cod caught while fishing for other species has to be thrown away because quotas have been filled up.

The plan aims to cut down the number of cod that are discarded and allow more to be actually landed and sold in shops.

But the plan is based around the idea that fewer cod will be killed overall.

The nets being trialled use a much larger mesh size to allow pressured species such as cod to escape while retaining other fish with larger catch quotas such as haddock.