90 per cent of Britain’s protected marine areas still trawled and dredged: Data released by conservation groups Oceana and Global Fishing Watch this month has revealed that damaging commercial fishing practices such as bottom trawling and dredging are still happening in more than 90 per cent of Britain’s protected marine zones. The data showed that trawling or dredging was carried out in 58 of the 64 zones, with 30,000 hours of fishing which disturbed the seabed taking place in the zones in 2021. Greenpeace said that allowing trawling and dredging was the equivalent of “allowing bulldozers to plough through a protected forest” while the Marine Conservation Society likened it to “bulldozing a national park on land.” While the government banned trawling in four marine protected zones last month, including the Dogger Bank, the new data shows that damaging forms of commercial fishing are still allowed in most of these zones. Click here to read more on this story.
Fishermen protest over sea creature deaths: The long-running issue of dead sea creatures washing up on beaches around Teesside has continued this month with commercial fishermen carrying out a protest. In October 2021 thousands of dead crabs, lobsters and other sea creatures were found on beaches around Teesside and the surrounding areas. An investigation was carried out by Defra which claimed that a naturally occurring bloom of harmful algae was the cause of the mass die-off. This was disputed by environmental expert Tim Deere-Jones and the Whitby Fisherman’s association. They used a freedom of information request to establish that many of the dead creatures had extremely high levels of pyridine, a chemical used in the marine industry, in their bodies. The fishermen also claimed that dredging which was taking place at the mouth of the River Tees was also causing the deaths. Fishermen said that the lack of crabs and lobsters was decimating their industry, and further news reports in local papers showed further waves of dead sea animals including lumpsucker fish, brown crab and lobsters washed up on beaches in Teesside. This month around thirty fishing boats from Whitby, Scarborough, Redcar and Hartlepool sailed up the River Tees in protest. The fishermen claim that the dredging and dumping of sediment to create the new Tees Freeport is causing continued sea creature deaths. Joe Redfearn, the chairman of Whitby Commercial Fishing Associating, was quoted on the BBC News website as saying “It is deeply concerning. The catch rates have dropped, there is no life in the rock pools, there are dead and dying marine animals washing up and in our pots. We are facing a huge ecological disaster.” The Environment Agency, Defra and the government have denied that seismic activity, pollution, chemicals, dredging or the laying of underwater cables have had any impact on marine life in the Tees area, but the fishermen have called for an independent scientific report to take place before any further dredging and dumping of sediment takes place. Read more on this story here.
EU vessels accused of illegal tuna fishing: Vessels from EU nations have been accused of illegally catching vulnerable stocks of tuna species from the Indian Ocean. An investigation by OceanMind, a UK-based organisation which aims to enforce compliance of fisheries rules and regulations, found that publicly available information showed that EU vessels had fished in the region between 2016 and 2020, with later analysis showing that they were not authorised to do so. A different investigation by the Blue Marine Foundation and Kroll, a corporate investigation company, found that many EU fishing vessels switched their automatic identification system (AIS) off when fishing for tuna in the Indian Ocean. AIS displays the location of fishing vessels as a safety measure but also helps vessels show that they are fishing only in the areas where they are authorised and are complying with regulations. Some EU vessels kept their AIS turned off for three-quarters of the time they were fishing between January 2017 and April 2019. A spokesperson for the European Commission claimed that switching off AIS “Does not imply that they fish illegally. The AIS might be switched off under certain circumstances by professional judgment of the master.” Read more on this story by clicking here.
Research reveals the scale of abuse of migrant workers in UK fishing industry: Research produced by the Rights Lab, an institution which is part of the University of Nottingham which investigates modern slavery, has revealed the extent of exploitation and abuse of migrant workers in the UK fishing industry. The researchers found that 33 per cent of migrant workers on UK fishing boats work 20-hour shifts, and 35 per cent report being subject to regular physical violence. In interviews migrant fishermen also reported racism and sexual violence. The research also found that the type of visas migrants are brought to the UK on transit visas– which tie the worker to a particular employer – meant that migrant workers could end up completely reliant on the captain of the fishing vessel for access to food and water. The captains could also potentially make them work excess hours or live in sub-standard conditions. One migrant worker said that he was unable to seek help as he was not allowed off the vessel, while another said that the captain of the vessel he worked on had taken his phone so he was unable to contact anyone. Dr Jessica Sparks from the Right Lab told the Guardian “Exploitative practices are widespread and endemic on vessels. Long hours for poor wages are endemic. It is well known that you can pay migrants less.” The study did, however, acknowledge that as the fishermen who took part in the study were self-selected and completed anonymous online interviews its findings could not be generalised across the whole of the UK fishing industry. Read more on this story by clicking here.
Female winner of Fisherman of the Year award and rejects “woke” terms: The winner of the Fisherman of the Year award was announced at the Fishing News Awards this month, with thirty-five year old Ashley Mullenger being crowned as the first female winner. Mullenger has been fishing commercially since 2018 and joined with fellow female fishermen Isla Gale and Mollie Smart (who were both shortlisted for the award) to reject gender-neutral terms when it came to commercial fishing. Instead, she said she choose to “identify as a fisherman” and found terms such as fisher “vile.” Mullenger also said that the “industry was not sexist at all”, although improvements could be made such as making life jackets which would fit women better. Fishing News said that after a poll of skippers it would continue to use the term fishermen instead of gender-neutral alternatives. Other media outlets such as the Guardian now use the term ‘fishers’ while the BBC was widely mocked for using the term ‘fisherpeople’ during a Radio 4 report on post-Brexit fishing rights in 2020. Read more on this story here.
Russian whitefish still sold in UK: An article in the Guardian this month stated that Russian whitefish was still being sold in British supermarkets despite a supposed boycott of the country’s produce. Almost all major companies have stopped selling Russian products since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February this year. However, the Guardian reported that Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda still sold fishfingers which were made with Russian fish, as did major seafood companies such as Birdseye and Youngs. Only Waitrose and Marks & Spencer said that they had stopped selling Russian-caught fish in their own products, although they still stocked brands that made products which contained it. The Guardian said that before the Ukraine conflict around £200 million of Russian whitefish was purchased by the UK each year, and the British Retail Consortium blamed “complex supply chains” for Russian whitefish still appearing on British supermarket shelves. Read more on this story by clicking here.
One-third of British fish and chip shops could close: An article on the Sky News website this month said that around one-third of the country’s fish and chip shops could close due to rising cost and supply issues. The National Federation of Fish Friers said that around half of the cooking oil used by British fish and chip shops came from Ukraine, as do a large proportion of the potatoes used to make chips. Both products have increased significantly in price since the conflict with Russia began. Furthermore, the price of cod and other whitefish has increased as Russian-caught fish – which made up around 40 per cent of all whitefish sold in UK fish and chip shops – is boycotted and no longer imported into Britain. The National Federation of Fish Friers called for government help and a “long term strategy” to save fish and chip shops from going out of business. Read more here.
Shark fin soup continues to be sold in the UK after ban fails to go ahead: The Mirror reported that shark fin soup will continue to be available in Britain after the government failed to implement a ban it promised last year. Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in many Asian countries but there have been repeated calls to ban it in the UK as entire sharks are killed and only the fins are removed to make the soup. In August 2021 the government made much of a shark fin soup ban which was due to be implemented this year, and Boris Johnson had previously said that shark fin soup was “barbaric” as sharks were “deprived of those fins while they are alive and thrown back into the sea”. But there was no mention of shark fin soup being banned in the recent Queen’s Speech, meaning the legislation to ban it will not now be put in place and shark fin soup will remain legal in the UK. TV presenter and conservationist Steve Backshall was quoted in the Mirror as saying that failing to go forward with the ban “[was] driving the destruction of an entire group of ancient animals” and said that the practice of making shark fin soup was “up there with rhino horn and ivory as the most senseless and wasteful of all.” A further investigation by the Mirror found that shark fin soup was still available in a number of restaurants in London, Manchester and Liverpool. Although it was not listed on the restaurant’s online menus, when the newspaper contacted the restaurants by phone they said that shark fin soup could be made to order if they were given enough notice. Click here to read more on this story.
The growing scandal of wasted fish and seafood: An article in this month’s Guardian drew attention to the growing issue of fish and other forms of seafood which are wasted by the commercial fishing industry. The article highlighted the FV Margiris, a Dutch-owned super-trawler which lost over 100,000 fish earlier this year when its net split. While this was classed as an accident, other fish are intentionally thrown back into the sea as discards, either because they are too small, a non-target species or of low value. It is estimated that worldwide every year around 10 per cent of all wild-caught fish are discarded – this amounts to 8.6 million tons of marine animals. Further issues are caused by the millions of pounds given to commercial fishermen to subsidise unprofitably fisheries, and the amount of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing which takes place across the world. Further fish can be lost on land because of poor handling, lack of storage and refrigeration facilities and through supply chains breaking down. The article states that the solutions to this begin at sea with more selective fishing methods reducing bycatch and more effective preservation methods such as freezing and refrigerating at sea. However, changes will be needed to reduce waste throughout the entire supply chain and subsidies should be used to strengthen good fisheries which do not deplete fish stocks. Read more on this story by clicking here.
Robot designed to remove jellyfish from the sea: The number of jellyfish is rocketing in seas and oceans across the world, possibly as a result of warming seas and overfishing removing the natural predators of jellyfish. The huge number of jellyfish can overwhelm other species and permanently damage ecosystems. It can also affect human activities. Trawlers have reported being unable to haul in nets when they become overloaded with jellyfish, and in 2007 a fish farm in Northern Island lost almost all of its fish when a swarm of mauve stinger jellyfish estimated at ten square miles in size overwhelmed the salmon pens. Similar incidents happened in British and Irish fish farms in 2008, 2013 and 2017. Now Japanese scientists at the Hiroshima Institute of Technology have developed a device which will remove jellyfish from the sea and crush them, before ejecting the remains of the creature back into the ocean. The devices are fitted with propellers and can move through the water independently, with cameras and artificial intelligence being used to identify and then destroy jellyfish. It is believed that the jellyfish-killing devices will be able to be launched from ships in areas where jellyfish populations are high and can operate for around three hours at depths of fifty metres (160ft) before automatically returning to the vessel they were launched from. It is hoped that the jellyfish-killing devices will be put into operation by 2024, and a larger version is being developed to exterminate the Nomura’s jellyfish, a species which can grow to 6ft in length and weigh 440lbs. Read more on this story here.
New technique finds scallops attracted to ‘disco lights’: Researchers have accidentally found a new way of catching scallops by attaching lights to traps and pots. The lights were fitted in the belief they would increase crab catches, but it was soon found that it was scallop catches which were significantly increased instead. Pots fitted with lights caught 518 scallops, while those without lights caught only two. As scallops are often caught by dredging – one of the most damaging forms of commercial fishing – it is hoped that this new technique could allow scallops to be caught in a low-impact way. Read more on this story by clicking here.