The U.K. Seafish Authority and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) have released findings from a three-year project that has mapped all English inshore fisheries and developed sustainability recommendations that could help them open up new routes to market and be of benefit to the broader supply chain.
Using the MSC pre-assessment process as a gap analysis of the current management of the English inshore fisheries, Project Inshore has produced bespoke reports for each of the English Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) and should enable these inshore fisheries managers to collectively coordinate sustainability efforts. It also provides an evidence base for IFCAs that do not have sufficient resources to approach funders for fishery investment.
Initially, Project Inshore was split into three stages: Stage One mapped more than 450 different fisheries within the English inshore sector (out to six nautical miles); Stage Two assessed all of the fisheries within each IFCA district using the MSC standard to score how each fishery was performing; and Stage Three provided a roadmap for each IFCA.
At Stage Two, 50 fisheries were found to be performing at a level that could be considered in the short- to medium-term to move on to full MSC assessment, while the remaining inshore fisheries will require a longer-term program of work to be undertaken to get them to perform at that level, said Dr. Tom Pickerell, technical director at Seafish and one of Project Inshore’s instigators.
It was known that for many fisheries there was insufficient information available to determine stock status and ecosystem impacts before Project Inshore started, said Pickerell. These “data deficient” fisheries are a result of limited funding being available to support research into all fisheries, often resulting in a necessary focus on those of most economic importance. This led the project to stage three and the aim to provide a plan for each IFCA, he said.
“What we now know is where there are data deficiencies and what needs to be done. It gives us the framework to improve the management of these fisheries,” said Pickerell.
The plans provide information and guidance for the IFCAs on what to do, and how to do it, to move fisheries towards higher levels of performance, ultimately reaching a standard that could go forward for MSC certification. Once at that level, it would be up to the fishermen themselves whether they wish to attempt certification.
“The past two and half years’ work, mapping and examining the inshore fleet, culminates in these reports and a publicly available database incorporating a wealth of information. Together, they allow us to use the results to work toward an environmentally sustainable future for English inshore fisheries,” said Clair Pescod, fisheries outreach manager at the MSC and chair of the Project Inshore Advisory Group.
“I believe there will be a strong legacy from this project, both in the UK and further afield, feeding the results into management to help inform priorities and develop improvements as well as highlighting current best practice,” she said.
Moving forward, Project Inshore will use all the information gathered so far to inform and develop Stage Four improvement projects, working with IFCAs, industry and stakeholders. A number of Stage Four projects are already under development, including exploring improvement work on brown crab in the South West.
Project Inshore is the first exercise of its kind on this scale in the world and has been recognized internationally, said Pickerell.
Seafish has been contacted by U.S. organizations interested in the feasibility of the approach in California inshore fisheries and there is interest in repeating Project Inshore in the Baltic and Mediterranean seas, he said.
The English fishing fleet comprises around 3,000 registered vessels, around 70 percent of which are active. There are about 2,000 under 10-meter vessels and more than half the inshore fleet are under 8 meters. The majority of landings are non-quota stocks, particularly shellfish.
