UK sea angling records tell a sorry tale

If you need proof that something is drastically wrong with our sea fish populations you need look no further than the British sea fish angling records.

These records will give you little indication of the size of fish prior to large scale commercial exploitation (archaeological records show that cod in medieval times could be several meters long), but for a look at the modern state of our marine environment it is enlightening.

If you take an average of the years in which the record fish were caught, the heyday for catching big fish in UK waters in modern times was roughly in the mid-1980's, and it's been pretty much downhill ever since.

No British sea fish record has been officially broken since 2002 (Couch's sea bream) and the oldest record still standing is from 1933 (Atlantic bluefin tuna - they left us when the N. Sea herring fishery collapsed).

Taking a closer look and accounting for commercial fish species only, the picture looks even bleaker.

The largest bass was caught in 1988, cod in 1992, haddock in 1978, halibut in 1979, herring in 1973, ling in 1989, mackerel in 1984, monkfish in 1984, skate in 1986 and plaice in 1989. (Source: British Record Fish Committee). It would be extremely surprising if any of these records are ever broken again.

Whilst this comparison can in no way be described as a definitive account of the state of the UK's seas, it is, for a person who grew up in the 1970's and was used to frequently seeing a 40lb cod or ling adorning the cover of the sea angling press, a sobering reminder of what we have lost beneath our surrounding seas.

Marine Bill

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the world saw the need to protect the dwindling flora and fauna found on land. Famous parks like Kruger National Park, Yellowstone Park and Etosha were formed.

In the UK famous poets like Byron and Wordsworth inspired people to take an interest in the hitherto exploited and under appreciated countryside leading to the freedom to roam bill in 1884. The bill failed and eventually mass trespass (direct action) was seen as the only alternative and five men were imprisoned for this action.

100 years later we are in a similar, but worse, positon with our oceans, seas and coastlines. It has taken longer for the outrage of ordinary people to be felt because the damage done has not been visible.

Official Government statistics which show that two-thirds of all commercially caught fish in the UK are disgarded dead surely is the tipping point where we all should now say 'enough is enough' and finally start the sort of mass public outcry that this deserves.

This Government has promised us a Marine Bill which would start the process of protecting our seas and coastlines, but do not actually deem it important enough to pass this bill through Parliament.

So much for progressive politics, continuing to drag their heels on a priority that should probably have been looked at by the UK Government 100 years ago.

Gannet success story to end along with discards?

Seabird populations have plummeted in the UK over the last few decades, mostly due to the overfishing of fish like sandeels, a vital food species for many seabirds. There has been one exception to this depressing trend, the northern gannet.

The UK gannet population has doubled since 1970, from roughly 100,000 birds to well over 200,000 today (56% of the world's population). It is believed that the reason for this spectacular success is the horrendous EU fishing industry policy of discarding unwanted fish.

The gannet is unique amongst UK seabirds in that it can dive from a great height, plunge into the ocean and grab fish that other seabirds cannot reach. It is also a large seabird, allowing it to outcompete most other seabirds when scavenging or foraging. When fishing boats throw unwanted and undersized fish overboard the gannet is well placed to take advantage of this completely unnatural bounty. Gannets may have also come to see fishing boats that are discarding fish as a reliable source of food. Dr Hamer, from Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences thinks that "gannets have different aptitudes and specialities and for some, that skill might be finding and following fishing boats."

If as expected gannet numbers plummet after discarding is banned, the one European seabird success story of the last few years will be seen to be due to nothing more than human folly. The folly of overfishing and waste, which benefited one specialised species of seabird for a time, but saw the greatest decline in overall seabird numbers in human history.

How much is a blue shark worth?

The blue shark in the photo was bought for £5 from Brixham fish market this morning.

Is £5 a fair price for the life of one of the UK's most spectacular wild predators? Even the fishmonger was horrified at the wholesale price, but he has to make a living and almost unbelievably he's not doing anything illegal.

How is this any different to the African bushmeat trade, endangered animals on sale for a relative pittance and serving no imperative nutritional need?

It has been suggested that, throughout the course of its life, a single shark could be worth as much as $2 million in tourist revenue. And that's before we even consider its worth to the planet.

If you can buy the carcass of an animal as valuable and threatened as a blue shark for a mere £5 in a conservation minded country, what hope is there for worldwide shark conservation?

We are squandering our marine wildlife for peanuts, and the protection of sharks and other threatened marine species needs to be drastically overhauled if we are to continue to see magnificent animals like the blue shark in the wild.

Why is marine conservation so neglected?

There are hundreds of organisations in the UK devoted to the conservation of the land and its animals. Incredibly there is only one well known organisation entirely dedicated to protecting our marine environment, the Marine Conservation Society.

Despite the fact that the UK is an island which depends on the sea for it's survival (well the Gulf Stream at least) there are more organisations devoted to saving bats than the animals that live below our chilly waters.

Even though some progress has been made most people still regard the sea and the animals in it as nothing more than a exploitable resource. Marine mammals and some reptiles are afforded legal protection, but almost unbelievably, hardly any native marine fish species (including the great white shark should it ever visit us) are protected by law.

Ten percent of the UK landmass is protected but less than one percent of our entire surrounding seas. Our first national park was created in 1951 but it was only 2003 when the tiny Lundy Island Marine Reserve received a no-take zone status.

National newspapers that wouldn't dream of publishing a picture of a man with a gun standing next to a shot lion will still publish pictures of endangered sharks like the thresher and mako killed by so-called sports fishermen for no other reason than an ego trip.

Perhaps what the marine conservation movement needs is a 'Born Free' for our generation, 'An Inconvenient Truth' for our marine environment? The documentary 'The End of the Line', based on the fish loving visionary Charles Clover's book of the same name is attempting this feat, and god knows our marine animals currently need all the help they can get.

Keeping what's left of the oceans

The oceans are a shadow of what they once were, and it is unlikely we can keep what little we have left unless we act right now. Here's a combination of ideas, which if used together in one concerted effort, may stop the rot.

1. More marine reserves. Eleven-percent of the UK landmass is protected but less than one percent of our entire surrounding seas. Our first national park was created in 1951 but it was only 2003 when the tiny Lundy Island Marine Reserve received a no-take zone status. The situation is similar or worse in most of the world's seas. It is time to stop treating our oceans as second-class ecosystems.

2. Subsidies for the fishing industry must stop. The EU has been subsidising the denudation of our oceans to the tune of €4.4 billion over a 12 year period. Spain, possibly the most rapacious fishing country on earth, got 48% of the subsidies dispensed. It would be hard to imagine a similar situation on land, where wild animals are hunted to near extinction with the aid of European taxpayers money. It is a legalised, government funded destruction on an unimaginable scale, and it must stop.

3. The sportfishing industry should change its practices and image. As is the case with land animals there is now no excuse for killing endangered large marine fish for sport and trophies. Despite this a significant minority of people in the sport fishing community are still killing these fish as proof of their endeavours in a similar vain to the great white hunters of the 1950's. This is the acceptable and media friendly face of marine animal slaughter, and it should no longer be tolerated.

4. Stop expanding the commercial exploitation of marine animals. There has to be a point where we draw a line under marine over-exploitation. Ideally we should have done this some time ago, but since we haven't we now have the perfect opportunity. Krill, the food of numerous marine species, may over the next 50-100 years be sacrificed for an oil that has intangible human health benefits and that is available from other less important living sources. Omega 3 oil can be obtained from linseed and flaxseed and need not be derived from a species so vital to the marine ecosystem. The exploitation of krill is where the line needs to be drawn in the sand.

5. Intergovernmental Panel on Marine Exploitation. Two-thirds of the Earth is fast becoming a biological desert and if the destruction of our marine ecosystems is to be halted, and ultimately reversed, bold, systematic, and effective measures are needed now. An intergovernmental panel on marine exploitation, if backed up by proper exhaustive fisheries science, may galvanise world opinion in a similar way that the IPCC has done for climate change.

It is now time for 'seal-safe' farmed salmon

In a recent poll 64% of the UK public would be against farmed salmon if it involved the killing of seals.

Despite this UK salmon farmers shoot hundreds of grey and common seals every year that are said to be a threat to salmon or the sea-cage net.

It is believed that many more seals are killed around the UK by people involved with commercial fishing and salmon farming that pose no danger whatsoever to the profitability of their businesses.

The UK has 40% of the world's population of grey seals (164,000) and 20,000 of the far less common 'common' seals, a population that has seen some drastic declines in recent years. If these numbers appear on paper to be healthy, it is worth remembering that the African lion population has fallen from 150,000-200,000 in the 1980's to a mere 18,000-25,000 today, mostly as a result of conflict with farmers.

Seals are intelligent mammals that spend most of their time in the sea and feed on fish, a bit like dolphins and porpoises, but in the mind of the UK seafood business that's where the similarity ends.

In 1990 the 'dolphin safe' label was introduced by the US Dept. of Commerce and has spread so successfully around the world that it is now almost universally accepted that you make canned tuna as cetacean friendly as possible.

If this can be achieved for a wild-caught pelagic species like tuna then why on earth are we still having to slaughter seals in order to protect salmon that are being farmed in highly controlled sites?

We are killing seals for the same reason that we slaughtered the wolf in the 17th century to protect cattle and sheep, and endangering whole populations of wild animals to put cheaper food on our plates is not a practice that should be tolerated.

We've learnt our lesson with 'dolphin-safe' tuna, now let's have 'seal-safe' farmed salmon.

Sea angling competition highlights overfishing

Old Man of Hoy, Orkney, Scotland

Nothing in recent times has come close to illustrating the problem of overfishing in UK waters quite so eloquently as this story about a sea angling competition recently held off the coast of Orkney, Scotland.

More than 150 international anglers spent five days competing in the European Sea Angling Championships, and only one haddock was landed.

In the 1970's and early 80's the waters around Orkney teemed with fish. On one trip to the Black Craig, a stone's throw from Stromness harbour, we caught plenty of haddock, cod, coalfish, pollock, mackerel and plaice, all in the space of about two hours. Now that same spot is devoid of fish.

Commercial fishermen knew where the fish were and systematically cleaned out each well-known spot with a couple of trawls, leaving the sea anglers with nothing.

If ever there was a case for marine reserves, it is in this story. We have allowed many of our coastal seas to become deserts, and for that we should collectively hang our heads in shame.

Junk Science?

As the breeding season for UK seabirds is in full swing the fishing industry has got its minions busily diverting the truth away from their destructive practices.

Dr Ian Napier, of the NAFC (North Atlantic Fisheries College), said today: "The immediate cause of the seabird breeding failures is generally believed to be a shortage of food. They have trouble finding sand eels to feed their chicks. Probably what is happening is that there is some change in the ocean which is reducing the availability of food and also increasing warm water, but we don't really know the details of what the cause is." (More details of report).

The inference in this quote is that global warming is to blame for the recent terrible times our seabirds have had breeding. But may I put it to Dr Ian Napier that 'the change' that is happening in the ocean is that commercial fishermen are removing too many food fish from the ocean that these birds need to feed their young.

It is, of course, no coincidence that the NAFC just happen to release this report at the beginning of the seabird breeding season, so when the headlines start reporting, for yet another year, that our seabird chicks are starving to death, the finger of blame will point towards climate change and not the real culprit, which is overfishing, and the greed and stupidity of our fishing industries.

Switch the fish, spread the problem

Supermarkets, led by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Fish Fight and Sainsbury's Switch the Fish campaigns, have recently been encouraging us to eat lesser-known fish species in a bid to make more sustainable choices.

What they haven't told you is that the majority of fish sold in UK supermarkets is already from sustainable sources such as Iceland, the Barents Sea, or from the Baltic.

And that's not the only problem with this well-meaning campaign. The market for fish is now a global business and fish wholesalers are able to find other outlets for threatened species such as cod, haddock and monkfish. If the UK market won't buy the fish someone else will.

By encouraging us to eat unfashionable fish species such as megrim, pouting, gurnard, coley or dab, all that will be achieved is to increase the market for fish. And this is already happening with overall sales of fish at supermarkets hitting record levels. In the weeks after the Fish Fight campaign was launched Marks & Spencer and Waitrose reported increased fish sales of 25% and 15%.

If we are seriously going to tackle the problem of overfishing then people are going to have to eat less fish, fishermen are going to have to catch less fish, and supermarkets will have to sell less fish. Creating a whole new market for previously unpopular species is just spreading the problem not solving it.