The economy of the sea & the future of fish

At a conference in London in May, representatives from the seafood industry – from fisheries and seaweed farms to lab-grown seafood startups and restaurants – converged to discuss the future of fish. The most hotly anticipated talk was by economist Guy Standing, author of The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea. Pressing for greater and more effective management of marine conservation zones and more responsible aquaculture among other things, Standing urged the next government to introduce a cabinet-level minister for the sea. 

“We are a maritime country,” Standing said. “Ever since Ancient Rome, common law has accepted that the sea belongs to all of us, it is part of the Commons. The Commons requires the government to be the steward, preserve it, enhance it if possible, and pass it on to succeeding generations without diminishing its value.” 

That’s not what is happening, Standing argued. Thousands of sea species are endangered, sand is mined from the sea to make concrete – contributing to land sinking into the sea – and boats routinely fish in marine-protected areas. Ministers in charge of maritime issues serve under the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), but it “tends to get marginalised,” Standing said, contending that there weren’t enough boats monitoring our seas. “We don’t have stewards, we don’t have proper gatekeepers.” 

Thus, in his eyes, systemic issues arise. Take fish quotas, for example. “We have a situation where a handful of fishing companies own the majority of our quota,” while small boats have access to significantly less. Quotas are controversial. According to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which advises governments on quotas, the recommendation for total allowable catch (TAC) for pollack in the Celtic Seas, Greater North Sea and Oceanic Northeast Atlantic in 2013 was 4,200 tonnes; the number landed was 4,965 tonnes. 

“Every year following you can see the TAC set way above the advice, even though the catches were declining,” says Edward Baker, CEO of the Plymouth Fishing and Seafood Association. The UK and EU governments, which set the TACs, were “incentivising increased fishing effort for diminishing returns.” According to the Blue Marine Foundation, over half the UK’s stocks are set at levels exceeding scientific advice.

According to Baker, pollack – long seen as a sustainable alternative to cod and haddock – has had a high quota for several years, but the quota was set using only landings data as a guide. “There was no survey data to look at what the biomass of fish is in the sea,” says Baker. But earlier this year, the government suddenly announced drastic cuts in pollack quotas, after negotiations with the EU. Many fishermen, some of whom relied on pollack for up to 80 per cent of their catch, lost their livelihoods. For Baker, issues like this arise when there’s a lack of coherent strategy between government, researchers, scientists and fishermen. 

Quotas, which are aimed at providing healthy stocks of fish, are just one issue surrounding the sea. Pollution, sewage and run-off from farming affects maritime species – just one per cent of juvenile sea bass in British waters make it into adulthood, according to Baker. Not to mention rising sea temperatures. “Overfishing is a problem, but there’s a whole lot of things we’re doing that are suppressing fish stocks that don’t get looked at.” 

One problem is spatial squeeze – evermore parties competing for space. Offshore wind farms, aggregate dredging (for the construction industry), cable laying for the internet, aquaculture, nature reserves and more. “There just isn’t space in the sea for everyone,” says Baker. Caroline Bennett, founder of Sole of Discretion, a Plymouth-based company which champions sustainable seafood, agrees: “It’s really squeezing the fishing community. The bigger vessels are encouraged to go further afield, but the smaller vessels can’t.” 

It begs the question: would an autonomous government department, separate from Defra, make a difference? “In some ways, it doesn’t matter,” says Baker. “I don’t have much faith in the process.” Baker spent eight years working in fisheries management for the government, and says a Defra fisheries minister or MMO or Defra fisheries manager who knows their subject well can be highly effective. “It’s not the political structure that’s the problem, it’s allowing big business to do what it wants that’s the problem.”

But, Baker admits, “it’s nowhere near as joined up as you’d like it to be.” He says the government is not clear on what sustainable fishing means, and needs to provide alternative incomes – in seaweed farms, for example – if people are forced to give up fishing. (Fishermen affected by the changes in pollack quotas were able to access grant funding.) 

Standing’s dream is that a new secretary of state “introduces better regulations and better systems of governance where all fishing communities are effectively run by the people who are involved in the life of those communities.” Local businesses and communities are vital to improving sustainability. Bennett founded Sole of Discretion eight years ago to provide local, low-impact and traceable seafood, which she says was almost impossible to find in Plymouth beforehand. She agrees that stocks of many species have been hammered by overfishing, and is concerned by certain species moving north as they chase oxygen and food in a changing climate. The recovery of bluefin tuna in seas off the southwest, on the other hand, is a welcome sight.

Bennett says nowhere near enough is spent on the environment, especially on the sea. “It’s really out of sight, out of mind. Nobody sees it, and you can get away with an awful lot more at sea.” She wants to see no-take zones (protected areas with no fishing, drilling or mining) that are properly enforced – something that wouldn’t necessarily require a new department. 

Baker has this far received no communication from the new Labour government, but says they plan to continue the previous government’s fisheries management plans. “The principles behind it are right, there’s a good framework. The one thing that fishing could do with more is just better science, better understanding of stocks.” That’s something he is pressing ahead with. The PFSA has recently been awarded a government grant to collect data on pollack, together with scientists and fishermen. That, says Baker is “an example of working with fishermen and government at the same time, trying to improve our understanding of fisheries.”