Cod are not technically classified as endangered, but Atlantic cod populations are in serious trouble. The Atlantic cod was listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in 1996, and many stocks have continued to decline since then. Pacific cod, by contrast, is considered sustainably managed in U.S. waters and is not subject to overfishing.
The answer depends entirely on which species you’re talking about and where it’s caught. The two main commercial species, Atlantic cod and Pacific cod, are in vastly different shape.
Atlantic Cod: Vulnerable and Still Declining
Atlantic cod has experienced one of the most dramatic population collapses of any commercial fish species. Since 1850, populations have dropped by roughly 96%. The most famous crash happened in the early 1990s off Newfoundland, Canada, where intense commercial fishing drove stocks so low that the Canadian government imposed a moratorium on cod fishing in 1992. That moratorium devastated coastal communities that had depended on cod for centuries.
More than 30 years later, Newfoundland’s northern cod stock has not recovered to anything close to its former size. The most recent Canadian stock assessment found that biomass remains well below pre-collapse levels. Recruitment of young fish has held steady since the mid-2010s at about 80% of what it was before the collapse, but the broader ecosystem on the Newfoundland shelf is still experiencing low productivity, likely driven by limited food availability at the base of the food chain.
The situation in European waters is similarly grim. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which advises European governments on fishing limits, recommended zero catch of North Sea cod for 2026 under its standard sustainability guidelines. For the southern substock in that region, even catching nothing at all leaves a 44% chance the population will fall below critical limits by 2027. Scientists simply cannot find a safe level of harvest for some of these populations right now.
Pacific Cod: A Different Story
Pacific cod is in far better condition. NOAA Fisheries considers U.S. wild-caught Pacific cod a sustainable seafood choice. There are four managed stocks in U.S. waters: the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Pacific coast. Based on 2023 assessments, the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska stocks are not overfished and not subject to overfishing. The Aleutian Islands stock isn’t being overfished either, though scientists don’t have enough data to fully assess its population size. The Pacific coast population has never been formally assessed but is not being overfished based on recent catch data.
Harvest limits for Pacific cod reflect this healthier status. The 2024 allowable catch for Bering Sea Pacific cod alone was set at nearly 148,000 metric tons. These limits are adjusted annually based on stock assessments, a management approach that has kept Pacific cod populations stable.
Why Atlantic Cod Haven’t Bounced Back
Overfishing was the original cause of the collapse, but removing fishing pressure hasn’t been enough to restore populations. Several factors are working against recovery.
Warming ocean temperatures pose a growing threat. Juvenile Atlantic cod exposed to warmer water (18°C versus 10°C) burn through oxygen faster, meaning they need more energy just to survive. When you combine warming with other stressors like ocean acidification and changes in salinity, the cumulative strain on young fish intensifies. These aren’t abstract projections. Water temperatures in the North Atlantic have already risen significantly over the past several decades, and cod are a cold-water species that thrives in temperatures well below what parts of their historical range now experience.
The collapse of cod also reshaped the ecosystems they once dominated. As a top predator, cod kept populations of lobster, crab, shrimp, and small fish like herring in check. When cod disappeared from Canada’s Scotian Shelf, herring and other small fish boomed, which drove down the tiny zooplankton they feed on, which in turn allowed phytoplankton to increase. Lobster and shrimp populations also exploded without cod predation keeping them down. These shifts created new ecological relationships that may actually work against cod recovery, since some of the species that benefited from the collapse compete with or prey on juvenile cod.
What This Means If You Buy Cod
If you eat cod, the species and source matter enormously. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program rates Pacific cod caught in Alaska or British Columbia as a “Best Choice.” Atlantic cod caught with pole-and-line gear in the U.S. Georges Bank or Gulf of Maine also earns that rating, as does most Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified cod and haddock.
The program advises consumers to avoid all other Atlantic cod caught in the U.S. or Canada, and specifically to avoid MSC-certified cod from Russia. If you’re buying cod at a grocery store or ordering it at a restaurant, asking whether it’s Atlantic or Pacific and where it was caught is the single most useful question you can ask. Pacific cod from Alaska is a genuinely sustainable option. Atlantic cod from most sources is not.
Modified Fishing Gear Offers Some Hope
One practical tool for protecting remaining Atlantic cod is redesigned fishing equipment. In fisheries that target flatfish like sole and flounder, cod are frequently caught as unintended bycatch. Researchers have tested a modified net design with an open roof section that allows cod to escape while still catching the target species. This “roofless” design reduced cod bycatch by about 75% in trials. Since bycatch mortality adds up across thousands of fishing trips each year, widespread adoption of gear like this could meaningfully reduce pressure on struggling cod stocks without shutting down other fisheries entirely.
Atlantic cod sit in a difficult category: not formally endangered under most legal frameworks, but with multiple populations hovering near collapse and no clear path to recovery in the near term. Pacific cod, managed under a different set of conditions and regulations, remains healthy. The word “cod” on a menu or a package can mean either one.