A few weeks from now, European Union fisheries ministers will gather for a familiar pre-solstice ritual. They will sit around a table until the wee hours, and share out Europe’s fish stocks. Fisheries scientists have already made their contribution to this ceremony by calling for beleaguered North Sea cod to be left alone. They have done this for seven years. For the past six, the ministers have calmly tossed Europe’s fishermen a cod quota anyway. This year they probably will again.
Yet the cod keep coming back to be fought over. What is going on here? Are the scientists just…
