The Labour Party government has been called upon to act over the overfishing crisis endangering ocean health around UK shores. It comes as a new report details a roadmap of how the government could do this – if it had the will to. Because while it fails to act, the biodiversity crisis in our seas will continue to get worse.
Oceana: a roadmap out of the overfishing crisis
Following Oceana’s 2023 report showing that half of the UK’s key fish populations were either overfished or critically low, the charity has launched a roadmap to ending overfishing and restoring ocean health.
After speaking to small-scale fishers, academics, and environmentalists from around the UK, the charity developed Mission Regeneration: A roadmap to end overfishing and restore life to UK seas for a fishing sector based on the principles of science, fairness, resilience, transparency and respect.
Oceana’s roadmap principles in full are:
- Science: the management of fisheries should move beyond Maximum Sustainable Yield to integrate the wider needs of healthy marine ecosystems.
- Fairness: fisheries should aim to deliver long-term environmental and social equity and fairness.
- Resilience: fisheries should protect the diversity of marine life and safeguard key areas for ecosystem recovery and carbon storage.
- Transparency: fisheries and seafood should be fully documented from boat to plate alongside transparent ownership of quota and vessels.
- Respect: all those working in fisheries should be treated with respect, be paid fairly, and be entitled to a safe, legal and abuse-free working environment.
For each of the five core principles, Oceana provides time-bound actions for government to take. By the end of 2025, the government should have set a new legally binding, science-led deadline to end overfishing, Oceana argues, along with a ban on ‘supertrawlers’ over 100 metres long, which hoover up vast quantities of ocean life.
UK seas must be made resilient
The resilience of UK seas in the face of other serious threats, such as the climate crisis and pollution, is also vital and requires measures to rejuvenate and protect ocean wildlife, such as urgently banning destructive bottom-trawl fishing in marine protected areas.
The government must also act to level the playing field, says Oceana, so that those that fish with nature, rather than against it, are rewarded with a greater share of quota and more taxpayer money goes towards sustainable practices.
Bally Philp of the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation, who was not an author of the report but was interviewed during its development, said:
I see pictures of my dad’s boat, knee deep in cod of a decent size. Cod like that would make the front page of newspapers now, and that change has happened in just one generation. Small-scale, local fishers, who rely on a healthy, productive ocean, need action now. If we ended overfishing once and for all how many more whales and dolphins could the ecosystem support? How many more fishermen?
Hugo Tagholm, executive director of Oceana UK, said:
Overfishing in UK waters, and the destruction of ocean wildlife it drives, is fundamentally a political choice. Year on year, catch limits have been set too high, with no regard for those small, local boats that need healthy seas to survive. Right now, we are allowing wealthy corporations to asset-strip our seas and move on, with no regard for coastal communities or our heritage as an ocean nation. Ending overfishing would bring back the abundance of our seas, provide resilience in the face of the climate crisis, and boost coastal economies. It is an opportunity that should not be missed.
Policy changes can protect and restore ocean health
As well as the specific measures that are the building blocks of ending overfishing, the government will also need to organise itself differently, Oceana says. It must move away from siloed thinking: fishing and ocean health are not only issues for policymakers focused on environment or industry, but also climate, communities and trade.
So, the report also proposes several new policy ideas to the government, including:
- Introduce a new legally-binding commitment to end overfishing and restore fishing to sustainable levels (by end of 2025).
- Introduce a due diligence supply chain obligation for seafood to set legally binding minimum environmental, social and safety standards (by end of 2025).
- Publish an annual audit on the health and management of all commercial fish stocks to be scrutinised by Parliament (by end of 2026).
- Introduce a fully funded just transition and skills programme for the fishing sector, including a scrappage scheme to support eligible fishers to scrap or adapt bottom towed vessels for alternative uses (by end of 2026).
- Strengthen visa protections and minimum salary requirements for fisheries workers and close loopholes that facilitate abuses of safety and human rights (by end of 2026).
- Ban fly-shooting and supertrawlers (over 100m) throughout UK waters (by end of 2027).
- Extend the remit of Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities to twelve nautical miles (by end of 2027).
- Improve legally binding minimum labour standards for the fishing industry (by end of 2027).
The call for action is echoed by the UK public, according to new polling data.
Overfishing: a hot button issue
Eight in ten people (82%) are concerned about the impacts of declining fish populations on ocean wildlife, and the same proportion (80%) is worried that those who work in the fishing industry would lose their livelihoods if fish populations continued to fall. A total of 78% of those asked supported the government introducing stricter, science-based limits on how many fish can be caught in UK seas.
Callum Roberts, professor of Marine Conservation at the University of Exeter, who was not involved in the report, said:
The science shows that we can restore our seas to thriving abundance and full health. What is standing in the way of this is not a lack of data, knowledge or technology. What is standing in the way of this political inaction, pure and simple. A comprehensive overhaul of the government’s strategy is needed, and Oceana’s report has started that conversation.
Will McCallum, director of Greenpeace, who was not an author of the report but was interviewed, said:
Oceana’s report shows that the UK public is rightly worried about what overfishing is doing to our seas and local livelihoods. The current approach puts big industry first; coastal communities a distant second; and the health of our ocean last of all. The UK needs a radical change in approach that is fair for all.
Featured image via the Canary
