Seafish: new study is old news

A new study that claims UK fishing fleets now work 17 times harder today than they did in the 1880s to catch the same amount of fish and that intense trawling has severely depleted species like halibut, turbot, haddock and plaice has been criticised by Seafish for failing to credit recent sustainability drives introduced by the industry.

Published in the journal

, the study found that trawl fish landings peaked in 1938 and that the landings per unit of fishing power (LPUP), a measure of the commercial productivity of fisheries, had fallen by 94% since 1889.

“This implies a massive loss of biomass of commercially fished bottom-living fish from seas exploited by the UK fleet,” said the study.

“In 1889, a largely sail-powered fleet landed twice as many fish into the UK than the present-day fleet of technologically sophisticated vessels. One hundred years ago, in 1910, the fleet landed four times more fish into the UK than it does today. Peak catches came in 1938, when landings were 5.4 times more than today.”

Researchers from the University of York and the Marine Conservation Society used UK government data on the amount of fish caught and the size and number of boats involved to analyze changes in fish stocks since 1889 to compile the report.

Commenting on the study, Philip MacMullen, head of environmental responsibility with Seafish, said the UK seafood industry body welcomes any attempt to create a historical perspective on the fishing industry but said the authority was confused as to why so much effort had been put into producing remarkably little.

“This piece of work essentially repeats Professor Roberts’ 2007 book about fishing and its impacts. The problem here is that many data sets are being mined but they’re not always compatible. This makes a lot of the detailed findings tenuous at best. For example, sometimes Scottish data are included, sometimes not, the impact of the Cod Wars isn’t really included, natural stock fluctuations aren’t explained, and the accuracy of effort and landings data are not questioned. So, whilst the big message isn’t in doubt – poor management resulted in serious stock declines – the underlying reasons are not made clear. This is old news dressed up as something new.

“No-one disputes that more needs to be done to manage our marine environment effectively – least of all the British seafood industry. That's why, in the last 15 years or so, industry, scientists and managers have introduced lots of new and innovative approaches.

“We now have long-term management plans, multi-species models, effort controls to limit days at sea, more selective fishing gears and voluntary closures of fishing grounds. Fishermen are using responsible and sustainable techniques, managers understand what they need to do, and stocks are rebuilding.”

MacMullen pointed out that more UK fisheries are Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified than any other nation, and the country was the first in the world to launch an independently-audited Responsible Fishing Scheme in 2006.

He added the number of whitefish boats has decreased by 70% since the year 2000. Very recently, beam trawlers in southwest England have reduced discards of non-target fish species by an average of over 50% by modifying their fishing gear.

“It’s all very well emphasising ‘the urgent need for action’ but the authors would do well to look at what's happening in today's marine environment, rather than dredging up dodgy data from the past. This is an industry which has transformed itself since the mid-1990s, as acknowledged by many stakeholders across the spectrum, from government to NGOs," said MacMullen.