The audit of British fisheries published on Friday 22 January by the NGO Oceana provides a worrying assessment of the state of fish stocks in UK waters.
While the EU and the UK are negotiating Total Allowable Catches (TACs) for 2021 for jointly managed species, the Oceana report shows that only 36% of the 104 audited stocks were known to be healthy in terms of stock size and only 38% sustainably exploited.
Oceana “calls on the UK government to stop overfishing and lead the way in sustainable fisheries by setting catch limits in line with science”.
Of the top 10 most economically important fish stocks for the UK, six are overfished, according to Oceana: cod, whiting and herring in the North Sea, crab in the southern North Sea, scallops in the Eastern Channel and blue whiting in the North-East Atlantic.
Three stocks on which the UK fishing industry depends are healthy and sustainably exploited: mackerel in the North East Atlantic, haddock in the North Sea and Nephrops in the West of Scotland.
“It is shocking to find that six out of 10 of the UK’s most important fish stocks are overfished or in a critical situation”, said Melissa Moore of Oceana.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/3p9FVYm (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)