A new study claims that fishing fleets 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.
Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study found that trawl fish landings peaked in 1937, 14 times higher than today, and that the availability of bottom-dwelling fish to the fleet fell by 94 percent.
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.
Seafish, which represents the UK’s seafood industry, was quick to respond to the findings.
“We welcome any attempt to create a historical perspective on the UK fishing industry, but we’re confused as to why so much effort has been put into producing remarkably little,” said Philip MacMullen, head of environmental responsibility for Seafish on Tuesday.
“This piece of work essentially repeats Professor Roberts’ 2007 book about fishing and its impacts,” he explained. “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.”
