17 Fishermen, Buyer, Face Trial In Sweden For Illegally Fishing Threatened Cod - AFP

[hatrack]

Seventeen people went on trial in Sweden Wednesday for illegally fishing more than 100 tonnes of cod, increasing pressure on threatened fish stocks, in the Scandinavian country's largest ever poaching case.

Sixteen fishermen stand charged in the Varberg district court in southwestern Sweden of illegally pulling in 109 tonnes of cod in 2005 and passing it off as pollack in order to circumvent strict EU quotas limiting cod fishing. A purchaser of the fish also stands accused of facilitating the scam, which allowed the fishermen to make an additional 1.83 million kronor (195,000 euros, 286,950 dollars) in total, according to court documents obtained by AFP.

The case is serious, according to the Swedish Board of Fisheries, since the illegal fishing puts further pressure on dwindling cod stocks in the Kattegat strait.

"Cod is very vulnerable ... In this case, one has in principle expanded the (legal) quota by 12 percent, which of course can have serious (environmental) consequences," the board's control chief, Johan Loewenadler, said in an interview on Swedish public radio.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/080827112219.nk99pqft.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Just COULDN'T live without your freakin' lutefisk now, could you?

[Barrett808]

2. We need much more of this kind of enforcement, if we're going to save the oceans. n/t