Hugh’s Big Fish Fight Channel 4

photo credit: Brian Forbes

It was purely by chance that I caught this programme on Channel 4 last night and it was a real eye-opener about the amount of fish that is discarded by our fishermen because of quotas.

Being a trawler-man is not the easiest and safest job in the world. When you go out fishing you compete against weather, waves and inherently dangerous working conditions. To then have to throw overboard the majority of your catch because you’ve run out of quota seems nonsensical. The quota system is not conserving fish stocks. The fish are still being caught it’s just that instead of being landed, sold and eaten they are being thrown overboard dead. The quota system is not a sustainable conservation or business model for trawler-men.

2,000 meals thrown overboard in one trawl.

It’s estimated that a half of all fish caught by the North Sea fleets is thrown back rather than landed.

It’s not just a few fish being thrown over board either. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall went out with on a trawler and in one trawl they throw overboard enough fish to feed 2,000 people. Quality, eatable fish being thrown overboard, what a scandalous waste of valuable resources. 2,000 meals thrown away on one trawl and when a fishing trip could involve 30 trawls then you are looking a serious waste. The captain of the vessel the Hugh joined estimated that he could throw away £30,000 pounds worth of cod and coley each trip because he has no quota left for this type of fish.

Coastal trawlers catch fish to throw overboard.

It’s not just the big companies and deep-sea trawlers that are impacted by fishing quotas. We saw the plight of coastal fishermen with their small boats who have been given such small quota limits for various fish that the trade has become almost unsustainable. In fact the quotas are actually doing damage to cod stocks. The local coastal trawlers use nets with large mesh which allow a lot of smaller juvenile cod to pass through and grow and mature. This helps the fishery to sustain itself. But because the quota limits are so small the boats soon run out of their ability to fish for large cod and have to trawl for other species. This means they use nets with a smaller mesh and so they catch more small cod which they have to throw overboard dead because they don’t have the quota to land those fish.

1 million tons of fish a year thrown overboard.

The amount of fish being thrown back is no small fry either! It’s estimated that a half of all fish caught by the North Sea fleets is thrown back rather than landed. That adds up to a whooping 1 million tons of quality edible fish each year being thrown away. To really highlight the amount of waste this policy of quotas cause the government has released figures about the amount of fish dumped at sea over the last 10 years by English and Welsh fishing vessels:

4.8 million cod,
3.9 million haddock,
4.9 million plaice,
737,000 sole,
17 million whiting.

If quotas are not the way forward because they do more damage than good then what is the best way to make fishing a sustainable industry. We really need to be looking at removing quotas for fish species and looking a different ways to conserve fishery stocks. The best way of doing this is to a combination of two methods.

Restrict fishing days.

Restricting the number of days that trawlers can operate but allowing them to land all their catch. If trawlers are currently throwing overboard half their catch then you can remove quotas and half the number of days they are able to go out to sea. They will still bring in the same amount of catch but will have half the costs.

Introduce no catch zones.

Total protection of nursery grounds for the most important species. Assigning no catch zones to the most prolific breeding areas of important fish will enable fisheries stocks to recover and to provide young fish for the areas where fishing is allowed. There are a number of no catch zones already established in some countries and they are already seeing positive impacts on local fisheries. There’s no reason why the same techniques should not work with deep sea fisheries.

Cod, tuna and salmon.

Last night Hugh Big fish Fight on Channel 4 concentrated on cod. Tonight he looks at the tuna fishery before finally looking at the salmon fishery on Thursday. It’s a programme that worth looking in on if you have a passing interest on where you food comes from the things that are kept hidden from public view as government and industry try to promote ‘sustainability’ in the food industry.