MSY THREAT TO SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES

The drive to reach maximum sustainable yield by 2015, the centrepiece of the new CFP, poses a direct and immediate threat to the survival of those small-scale fisheries dependent on quota species. Although the media focus recently has tended to focus on the distribution quotas, these pale into insignificance against the scale of the TAC reductions for 2015 proposed by the European Commission. Some of these provide a direct threat to the very existence of some small-scale fisheries.

If those proposals are accepted by the Council of Ministers on 16th December, it can only mean one thing - that the kind of casualties already seen in the Bristol Channel this year will be visited upon other inshore fleets in 2015.

Dover soles form a huge part of the landings in Newlyn - skippers are currently reporting Dover soles everywhere they fish - and are dumping them as they have no quota even now.

The scale of the proposed reductions are breathtaking, including: A 60% reduction in the TAC for eastern Channel sole, a stock of central importance to the inshore fleet

• A 64% cut in the TAC for Celtic Sea cod, which will impact on a wide range of fleets including the under-10s

• Bristol Channel sole cut by 35%, when the existing quota was exhausted by June of this year

• Haddock in the Celtic Sea cut by 41%; another stock fished by a wide range of vessel sizes

• Skates and Rays in the North Sea and Western Waters face a further cut of 20%

If these proposed cuts had taken place against the background of a crisis in the stocks, it might have been plausible to argue that this very severe medicine is necessary to counter extreme overfishing. But they take place against the background of greatly reduced fishing pressure and a generally improving biomass for the stocks in our waters. These are not cuts driven by scientific stock assessments which indicate a serious problem with stocks. They are driven exclusively by a political agenda which forces an MSY timetable on decision-makers; along with a brutal approach to any fishery deemed to have insufficient data.

Mitch Tonks' recipe for ray wings will soon become a luxury  dish as  fish shops rely on imported fish - no doubt caught in UK waters by other EU boats with bigger quotas!

There is a direct contradiction between concerns expressed by a range of green organisations for notional small-scale fisheries and the lobbying activities of those same organisations at European level for an “ambitious” MSY timetable, which could well lead to the demise of a range of actual small-scale fisheries.

The scale of the proposed quota reductions, against the background of increasing abundance of fish stocks experienced on the grounds, could lead one to forgive those predisposed to conspiracy theories. But despite appearances, this is not a plot to eliminate the small-scale fisheries around our coasts. It is primarily the result of a blundering political decision, enshrined in law in the new CFP, to force ministers to set TACs according to a rigid timetable – MSY by 2015, or 2020 at the latest. Scientists, officials, ministers and, of course fishermen and fish workers, are now tied into a legal framework with very little room to manoeuvre. That was exactly the intention of enshrining MSY – a political concept masquerading as science – as a mandatory part of the new CFP.

Harvest Reaper PZ329 is typical of many day hauling Under 10m vessels in the South West landing top quality fish. 

For those who think that we are crying wolf, and don't have the imagination to envisage the consequences of this scale of quota reductions, it is only necessary to look at the experience of the Bristol Channel this year: quotas so small, following cumulative reductions, as to become unmanageable; fleets displaced from the Bristol Channel; under-10m vessels tied up; the main fish processor closed; fish workers who have lost their jobs. This can only be the fate of other fisheries if these reductions are accepted.

Alternative Path

Since 2000, fishing mortality has been dramatically reduced across the North East Atlantic by around 50%. Stocks are rebuilding; some rapidly; some more slowly, depending on local and ecosystem factors. A rational, balanced and proportionate fisheries management approach would aim to continue this steady climb towards high-yield fisheries, without bankrupting the fleets. Even within the rigid CFP framework, ministers do have some scope to balance out the more extreme effects of the MSY timetable by setting TACs at a level commensurate with the viability of the fleets; and avoiding the unacceptable human costs of a repeat of the Bristol Channel catastrophe.

This will take political courage - to face down those in the green lobby and their friends in the media, apparently oblivious to the human costs of the policies they have largely been responsible for. It will take international cooperation – ministers will have to work together to avoid being isolated and picked off by concessions here and there. It will take a deeper understanding of the consequences of cumulative TAC reductions on fishing businesses and fishing communities. It will also take the intervention of the new Commissioner to ameliorate the dogmatic and damaging policies of his predecessor.

Courtesy of the NFFO

Newlyn's latest boat the Ajax lands her first trip to the fish market.

Ten days after leaving McDuff in Scotland the Ajax makes her first landing on Newlyn with over 300 boxes of hake and whitefish on board. As per usual, the landing is split between Newlyn and the fish market at Brixham to get the best prices for the boat. 

Wednesday's not so busy market

The first landing for the Ajax is the only fish at this end of the market...

as the 2-3Kg hake go up for auction...

the boat landed a good shot of big white fish like these 2-3 Kg pollack...

keeping the buyers interested...

as the hake was sold first...

it's all smiles from the fish wondering where they will be headed next...

Newlyn has become the top hake port in the UK...

and clearing the fish off the market is a priority...

to see that it gets to the next link in the supply chain as quickly as possible...

a far cry from the days of sailing fishing boats - as depicted in this early John Miller oil at Lane's Auction house.

The new Ajax makes her first landing in Newlyn.

Tied up against the fish market in Newlyn for the first time with a trip of fish on board...

it's all smiles from Tom as the new net transporter...

fleets the net down in one of the stern net pounds a job that normally takes two of the crew to carry out...

waiting to land...

the fishroom on the new boat is huge compared to the old Ajax...

and the better refrigeration means the fish is held at less than +2˚C...

and makes life easier for the fishroom man...

in the mists of time...

the first boxes come ashore...

with half the trip going by road to be landed on the market at @bazilyo market...

view from the quay over the shelterdeck...

as more boxes come ashore...

co-owner James Pascoe gets to help out landing the boat's maiden trip...

from the depths of the fishroom...

even the ships Dr, Russell from Penwith Marine Services gets to lend a steadying hand...

so that skipper Alan gets the fish safely ashore for Wednesday's market.

The Holy Grail of Real-Time Data - a timely post from the #GAP2exchange team's Lyme Bay exchange trip.

In this third blog post on the Lyme Bay team’s #GAP2exchange trip, fisheries consultant Andy Woolmer gives us an insight into what was learnt – and explains why a love of data means more efficient fishing for the Morro Bay community.

"The dust has settled and I have finally caught up on my inbox after our fantastic GAP2 Exchange to California. The past couple of weeks have given me time to reflect on our experiences over on the West Coast and the many conversations that we had with fishermen, conservationists and scientists.

Our original intention for traveling to the Pacific from the English Channel was to learn how collaborations to gather key management data and information had been developed between scientists and conservation NGOs, with fishermen working in the fisheries. We certainly did that but as a group we learned so much more.

The learning experience was certainly not all one way as we quickly realised that some of the methods that Blue Marine and the members of the Lyme Bay Reserve working group are developing really are leading the way.

A case in point is our development of a data recording App that is linked to an inshore Vessel Monitoring System (iVMS). Our colleagues at TNC have developed a similar APP and have been exploring its potential and uses with some success. It was clear that a data collection platform, linked to the iVMS, represents something of a holy grail for us fellow marine data geeks.

Santa Barbara beach © Emma Pearson Santa Barbara beach © Emma Pearson The benefits of real-time data

What I found most interesting was how this data was already being used to inform fisheries management in real time and how that directly improved the economics and efficiency of the fishermen’s businesses. TNC showed us how they had recently used fishing activity data from vessels in their Community Quota Trust to inform a sustainability assessment by Seafood Watch that resulted in Rockfish species being listed as “good alternative” rather than “avoid”. Without the evidence of fishing activity and effort this would have been impossible.

The use of real-time catch data of what we call “choke” species, those species for which fishermen have a very limited quota, was very exciting. The members of TNC’s risk pool, which holds members quota for sensitive species, report on any catches of “choke” species daily. This data is mapped and made available to the members to enable them to avoid aggregations. By avoiding these areas they are able to continue to fish for species that they have quota for and improve their efficiency. On their own, once they had caught all of their “choke species” quota they would be forced to tie up their boat for the rest of the season.

Santa Barbara Harbour © Emma Pearson

We met some great scientists down at Santa Barbara who were working with fishermen engaged in crab fisheries. Reading their reports and hearing about their challenges brought it home that we all have the same problems on both sides of the Atlantic; inability to carry out stock assessments due to insufficient stock information, lack of funding, logistical issues of working at sea etc. Their approaches to develop fishermen self-sampling were fantastic and have given me some ideas. It was nice to meet fellow scientists so keen to work with fishermen and to see how collaboration can work to improve both fishery management and the lot of the fishermen.

Lobsters in Santa Barbara © Emma Pearson 

I was surprised by the seemingly hands-off or arm’s length approach that the fishery regulators and managers have in California. Maybe this is as a result of the size of the place but I am accustomed to a situation where we can ring up the local IFCA and talk to either the local officer or, more often or not, the Deputy or Chief Officer about an issue. Actually, they ring us too. This is a strength of our inshore fishery management structure and although we often grumble as an industry it was clear that it could be far worse.
Concluding thoughts

Our discussions up and down the coast ranged far and wide, and were certainly not limited to dry and sterile subject of data collection or statistics. We learned that Individual Transferable Quotas were unpopular with the fishermen despite them often being lauded as a solution to solve all of the resource allocation issues. The situation in Morro Bay before the formation of a Community Quota Trust, which acts to keep the fishing quota within the community, sounded pretty serious from a socio-economic perspective. The ability of fishermen to sell on their ITQs had resulted in them becoming owned or leased by fishing vessels or processors from out of the area. This in turn resulted in vessels fishing, operating and landing their fish from other ports which threatened the shoreside processing and servicing businesses in Morro Bay. We tried to imagine what would happen in somewhere like Lyme Bay if we had the same ITQ situation there; the feeling was that that local fisheries would end up being fished by large vessels from larger ports where markets and facilities exist to make the operation profitable. A win for economic efficiency but surely a loss for the character and heritage for our small coastal communities.


All in all it was a very productive exchange trip. I personally returned full of ideas and the promise of future collaborations with colleagues in California. The Lyme Bay group were all taken aback by how accommodating our hosts were and we all hope that we can return the favour in the not too distant future."

@GAP2_project / #GAP2exchange 

For further information, images or quotes, on this exchange, please contact Katrina Borrow on Katrina@mindfullywired.org

So much for fisheries management

So much for UK / USA  cod / ray / skate / plaice / bass (un-delete as appropriate) fisheries management.

This is yet another example of fisheries 'management' from across the pond in the USA - substitute NMFS for the MMO and a few other terms and you just as well be talking about the UK.


Here's the story:
For those of you across the fruited plain, here’s how it went down in New England’s cod fishery. Beginning 20 years ago or so, NMFS cut the number of days boats could fish. Then it cut them again. Then it bought back some vessels. Along the way it discovered its stock assessments were flawed. It bought back more vessels and cut more days.

So much for effort controls.

In 2009 Jane Lubchenco, a college professor from the West Coast, took over the reins at NOAA and led the effort to convert New England to catch shares management. Kool-Aid drinkers with a taste for this regime believe that catch shares “rationalize” fisheries, scaling production capacity to match a desired harvest level.

As of today, the desired harvest level for cod is zero. “Thanks for playing,” fishermen have been told.

So much for output controls.

“We couldn’t be any worse off, either the resources or the people, if we had no management at all for the past 20 years,” Maggie Raymond, owner of two groundfish boats and a longtime industry activist, told Maine’s Portland Press Herald this week.

Which brings to mind Thomas (Diddy) Martin. Diddy was a first-rate welder and mechanic who worked on a lot of the fishing boats around southern York County, Maine, in the 1970s and ’80s, including mine. Diddy could make anything run but his specialty was putting scrap metal to indestructible use by fishermen who otherwise could be counted on to break anything. “This has got worms,” he’d say about whatever he was rigging. “But we’ll rube” — as in Rube Goldberg — “something together."

When we were done work we would go to a bar and argue. Diddy believed that fishery management was a waste of time. I was a champion of fishery management, which at the time had no impact on me as an inshore fisherman. I didn’t even fill out the logs.

“Diddy,” I’d say earnestly, “we’ve got to manage these fish.” “No way!” he’d declare. “All you’ve got to do is catch them. If you can’t make any money catching dabs you’ll catch something else or go out of business. “I’m tellin’ ya,” which he always said when he was telling us something, “The last thing you want is for the government to get involved.”

I miss you old friend. And you were right all along. 



Interesting feedback from website reader Jim kendall:
There's a whole bunch of irony involved here (without involving Diddy's scrap metal), when you look back at all that's been done in the name of fisheries management. It's a damn good thing that the people who work for NOAA/NFMS aren't paid based upon what they've managed to produce (or catch).

By the simple virtue of devastating & downsizing the commercial fishing industry, they've managed to grow their own "business" to some unimaginable size & value. I've tried unsuccessfully to learn as to how large it (NOAA/NMFS) has grown in the past 20 years, & what the budget has as well.

Let's take Gulf of Maine cod for example. All of a sudden the industry was made aware of an unscheduled & previously unannounced, reassessment, or review of an earlier assessment without the benefit of, or the need for, a new survey. This happened after we were told that there wasn't time or money to do other research or reviews to update the stock assessment for the coming year. Then all of a sudden, here we have a new evaluation of the same old data that gave us last year's 75% reduction. This time stating that there apparently was just 3-4% of the required spawning stock, & not the 13-18% of the last assessment

Remember pollock? When their first assessment required another huge reduction in quota, a second look brought about a nearly 500% increase in the quota. Apparently, quota adjustments of, plus or minus (+ or -) 400 to 500% are within the acceptable confidence levels of this august panel? At that time it required about 2 to 3 weeks time to do a peer review after the announced quota increase. Since then, they've apparently gotten much better at doing their peer reviews as well, as the latest one for the GOM cod only required 2 days! Probably because there are so few cod to count now.

At the time, apparently the error in the first assessment was due to a newer method of modeling as explained in the June 17, 2010 New Bedford Standard Times by Jud Crawford, the science and policy manager for PEW's New England Fisheries Campaigns. "This represents a big improvement in the way they go about the assessment," he said, "because scientists formerly employed an "index-based" model for stock assessment". "That was fairly primitive. But over the past several years they have been able to assemble the data for a more sophisticated age-structured model," Crawford explained. How quickly that has become flawed & antiquated, apparently.

At the Portsmouth, NH peer review meeting this past August, questions & issues regarding climatic & changing ocean conditions were raised. I tried to get some reasoned response from the peer review panel as to why; "if water temperatures, & ocean conditions were causing dramatic changes, & were very possibly causing the beginning of a regime shift for cod & its food sources, was the NFMS & the NEFMC continuing to try to manage this resource by reducing mortality through effort reductions on fishermen???

Those questions remain just as unexplained & enigmatic as to how in the hell they expect the small boat fishermen, in particular, to survive? Perhaps in the end it can all be explained as: SHIFT HAPPENS!

Jim Kendall NBSC Nov. 13, 2014

Developing a stakeholder led vision for fisheries in the year 2050 - too far off or too far out?

In September 2014, a group of people, actively working in different aspects of UK fisheries, gathered to discuss what the future might hold for UK fisheries.

To see who attended the workshop click here. 

They discussed questions like:

Which species will be on the menu? 
What will the British fleet look like? 
How much will a wild caught fish be worth?

After watching the video you are encoraged to rspond here:

We would like to hear your vision for UK fisheries in 2050. We will be incorporating comments we receive to our draft vision at the end of February 2015. Alternatively, submit your own vision of what you want the future to look like. Follow us on Twitter - @UKFisheries2050 - or look for #Fisheries2050.


This was the vision:

In 2050 the human population is now at nine billion. Land-based food production has become focused on growing crops for carbohydrates (eg grains, rice, vegetables) because growing animals for meat is a less efficient use of land. In contrast, the energetics of the marine environment are such that sunlight is efficiently converted into protein (marine animals), so fish and shellfish has become an increasingly important protein source.

UK seas are 2–3°C warmer than 2014, which has resulted in shifts in the distributions of some species, the reorganisation of many fish communities and new fishing opportunities. Cold-loving species, such as cod, haddock and whiting have declined, while we have seen an increase in warm-loving species, such as red mullet, red gurnard and John Dory. Though species composition has changed, European seas have remained productive.

The UK has been a global leader in reforming its fisheries. More UK fisheries are sustainable and productive than in 2014, and fishermen now have a better standard of living with a guaranteed level of income through salaries. Existing law and policy was applied sensitively and adaptively, which led to the recovery of many commercially important fish stocks. Rising fuel costs prompted industry-led initiatives to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, mainly through the implementation of innovative technologies. The industry has raised its standards of labour practices and fishing methods in consideration of the welfare of the people and the animals involved.

In 2050, there are distinct forms of fish production and markets within UK fisheries. An artisanal market has developed around inshore capture, using static gear, short supply chains, valued coastal communities and highly informed consumers. Offshore fisheries are sustainable as a result of new technologies and mostly supply businesses buying in bulk, such as those producing highly processed fish products. Aquaculture focuses on mass protein production as well as niche production of a few high value species. The UK industry has reduced its dependence on wild-caught fisheries by increasing production of molluscs and crustaceans as well as herbivorous fish, such as carp and mullet, but also through advances in alternative protein sources in fish food.

Fishing businesses at all scales are more stable due to fair prices, lower market volatility and more co-operative business models. Fishermen are well-educated and attentive to the markets in which they operate. The management framework and technologies exist to allow fishermen to be responsive to real-time communication with buyers and consumers in order to deliver a quality, fairly-priced product in an internationally competitive market.

All consumption is of sustainably fished, fully traceable stock, whether caught locally or imported from overseas. The UK example has resonated globally, resulting in marked improvements in international standards and practices. Some consumers have embraced and celebrate seasonality and diversity of UK fisheries, increasingly choosing to “Buy British”, and all experience the health benefits of regular fish consumption. Waste has been reduced through gear modification and targeted fishing, use of the whole catch and efficient use of all products pulled from the sea.

Large databases built on many decades of information gathered from a multitude of sources contribute to real-time, responsive management. Fishing boats act as research vessels with on-board image recognition technology that automatically digitises catch data and pools it from multiple sources. These data, alongside adaptive regulatory tools, have revolutionised stock management and near-time prediction of landings.

In thirty-five years, changes within the UK fishing industry have made it a sustainable option for meeting protein demands. Healthy oceans have been achieved alongside improvements in the economic sustainability and wellbeing of fishing communities. Consumers trust the integrity and sustainability of UK seafood supply networks and aim to buy British products, pay fair prices for their products and embrace new species as they become available. These changes, from suppliers to consumers, have made the UK fishing industry more resilient to the changes that have come about as a result of climate change. As we face more environmental uncertainty beyond 2050, we are confident that UK fisheries will not only continue to contribute to the food supply, they will also retain many social, economic, health and cultural benefits.