This Guardian headline is a bit misleading as the text of the Oceana report shows that the assessment covered 104 stocks, and for getting on for half of them there were too few data to be confident on stock state one way or the other. 20% of stocks were in critical condition and 36% were in good nick.
You don’t have to feel too guilty about eating langoustines from the west of Scotland, mackerel from the northeast Atlantic and North Sea haddock. Read the report for other tips.
There was nothing so predictable than that fishermen would be used by the government as a bargaining chip in the Brexit negotiations and that the outcome would not favour them much. Actually there was something as predictable – that the same would be true for farming.
Outrage from Tory MPs from fishing constituencies should be greeted with ‘Well it’s partly your fault!’. Eustice, himself from a Cornish constituency of course, basically said that fishermen (and women) weren’t filling the forms in properly. It must be quite difficult in a big swell. Joke politician Jacob Rees-Mogg said that British fish were happier to be overfished by British fishermen than by foreigners (or something similar).
I’m quite taken by the idea of ordering one of the many fish boxes that can be delivered to your door these days – I’ve never done that. How about a few dozen oysters? I’m quite taken by the idea but I haven’t done anything about it!
Here are some I’ve looked at though:
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I’ve been a keen angler since I was young but I don’t fish at all these days and hardly ever eat fish. In my lifetime I’ve seen fish stocks dwindle to the point where sea fishing is more depressing than relaxing and even when I was young older fishermen would tell me how bad things were compared to when they were young. We keep getting told that fish populations are ‘sustainable’ but doesn’t that just mean they’re being sustained at the current massively depleted levels?
And don’t get me started on the lager swilling anglers hauling obese carp out of the lake at the local nature reserve while polluting the water their trophies have to live in and throwing stones at the goosanders.
There’s a tendency to concentrate on biodiversity – species numbers – but what really struck me was the report that marine nature reserves can hold 4 times the biomass of our (overfished) seas. That suggests to me that properly conserved stocks could yield double what they do now – for those who believe in ‘food security’ more than compensating for the minimal amount of food production a the 5% for nature & natural processes reccomended by among other the Government’s own Natural Capital Committee – which also raised the potential for more food from recovered fish stocks.
Just imagine if fish were birds, or indeed any land animal, with only 36% of the population at acceptable levels.
It’s difficult to think that we would all stand by and let it happen. And yet of course we do, because we can’t see them.
Wholesale change is required – starting with the cessation of their exploitation for money. Note I didn’t say ‘food’ as the drive to deplete fish populations has nothing to do with food, and everything to do with money.
Julian – you’re broadly right although of the 247 regularly occurring bird species in the UK, two thirds are red or amber listed (though it’s not quite as simple as tht, I admit) https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/shared_documents/publications/birds-conservation-concern/birds-of-conservation-concern-4-leaflet.pdf
I would not pretend to be an expert on fishing details but but there are some overall issues which obviously need major reform. I have always felt it is a business that is not properly monitored or controlled both in U.K. waters and in International waters. The appearance recently of these super trawlers is just disgraceful. They should be banned immediately . How can fishing be sustainable with those monsters around ?.
No industry can monitor itself, the temptation to “fudge” the books is too great. Agreement is also needed on the international monitoring of fishing
The other big issue is the use of plastic by the fishing industry. In the “old days” nets and almost all other fishing equipment was biodegradable, now it is not and marine wildlife is constantly being caught up and subsequently killed by discarded or lost fishing tackle.
Major reforms are need to the fishing industry and they are long over due. These include the banning of super trawlers, independent monitoring on the high seas of fishing, including fish “takes”, and fishing practices and the banning of the use non biodegradable fishing tackle, especially all forms of plastic.
I fish, for Grayling and Brown Trout, most if not quite all are returned. I like fish but am a little careful what I buy. Having looked I’m fairly sure I would not buy from the fish box companies Mark mentions bar possibly the last, I don’t want farmed Salmon and apart from prawns and langoustines am not a fan of shellfish. Oysters Ugh! The management of our seas has been poor but then most natural resources including land has not exactly been any better.