The number of cod in the Irish Sea has increased from 863 tonnes to 11,000 tonnes in just eight years, research has shown.
Campaigners said yesterday that the latest figures show tougher EU measures are protecting fish stocks.
The research was compiled by the International Commission for the Exploration of the Seas, an intergovernmental organisation that measures fish stocks in the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the Baltic and nearby waters.
There were over 18,000 tonnes of cod in the mid-1970s but stocks collapsed as fishing boats became more sophisticated and demand increased.
The Irish Wildlife Trust welcomed the news as “decades of overfishing” had made the Irish Sea “an ecological wreck”. It called on the government to go further and create marine protection zones so that the fishing industry was unable to overfish cod again.
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“Every year since 2004, scientists have recommended that no fish at all be caught, advice which has been ignored,” the trust said in a statement.
“Caution is required as most of the fish were found to have spawned in 2013, with much lower spawning in subsequent years, meaning that the size of the stock is predicted to fall.”