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In a time of pollution, plastics and climate change, overfishing remains the single biggest threat to marine life and ocean health. In light of this reality, it is staggering that the government’s own scientists have published a report that 54% of catch limits have been set at unsustainably high levels.
This is word for word, the start of an article on this issue we wrote last year. Since then, we in the UK have had a new government, and the European Union has seen a new Commissioner responsible for Fisheries, and yet all this political change has led to exactly no change in the amount of overfishing – literally none. Nada. No progress at all. Just like last year, 54% of quotas have been set above scientifically advised sustainable levels. We have seen no change. Well, maybe with one exception: for the first time, we now have a quota that actually exceeds the number of adult fish in the population.
On land, we have been seeing financial market stocks collapse—underwater, what is the situation with fish stocks? Well, sadly, in many cases (although not all), the same could be set to apply—stocks of cod, whiting, herring, and pollack, for example, are all so depleted that the scientific advice is for zero catches. Worryingly, lessons do not seem to be learned, and stocks of mackerel (in particular) are careering in the same direction.
Every year, the UK sets catch limits known as Total Allowable Catches (TAC) for most commercial fish stocks, which determines the volume of fish caught. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is the independent scientific body which provides advice for fish stocks. However, the process of agreeing and sharing these catch limits is quite complex, where some stocks get negotiated with other countries. It is at this point of the process where countries choose to simply ignore the scientific advice which inevitably leads to stocks declining and ultimately collapsing.
Last year we highlighted the case of cod in the Celtic Sea – a stock that had declined by 93% in the previous ten years. We also wrote that the “TAC has now been set at the entirety of the adult population”. So what is the situation this year for this stock – sadly, it has continued to decline and its now at its lowest ever level, perhaps even more staggeringly the catch limit for cod in the Celtic Sea for 2025 is higher than all the adult cod in the Celtic Sea. Yet we see Orwellian misuse of language describing the approach of the UK and the EU as ‘prioritising sustainability’
During the debate on the post- Brexit Fisheries Act, the Labour Party (then in opposition) led a huge effort to make sustainability the primary objective – it seems what is good for an opposition is not what you do when you get elected. For a government that came to power promising to reverse the decline in nature and (rightly) decrying the poor performance of its predecessors, it is extraordinary that the first big decision on restoring nature at sea is to make exactly the same bad decisions the previous government made. At some point, governments need to move beyond impressive sounding platitudes and actually make decisions that do what they claim they do.
The lack of progress in recovering some of the most depleted fish stocks in the UK is inexcusable. Without enforcing fisheries management designed to eradicate the possibility of this happening, this will almost always be the result. It is, therefore, astonishing that the same mistakes keep getting repeated. It was to be hoped that a new government, with a big mandate to deliver on nature recovery, would make some progress – maybe they will do better next year…?
