"It’s time min­is­ters saw our abil­ity to feed ourselves from the sea as a stra­tegic asset"

 

Fishing and Seafood should be treated as Critical National Infrastructure, says Fisheries APPG

Launching its Action Plan for a Thriving and Sustainable UK Fishing Industry at the historic Fishmongers’ Hall on the evening of 9 September, the APPG on Fisheries called on Government to treat fishing and seafood as part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.

The cross-party Group urged ministers to set out a coherent, long-term strategy for the sector in the next twelve months, recognising its strategic value as a food-producing industry vital to national food security.

The Group argues that a resilient seafood system – spanning domestic catching, processing and trade – is vital to the UK’s food security, and that a healthy domestic fishing industry is a strategic asset within that system. In 2024, UK vessels landed 745,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish, while the UK imported more than 1.1 million tonnes of seafood. While much of the domestic catch is exported and many imports reflect UK consumer preferences, this gap points to a reliance on global supply chains that recent geopolitical events have shown can no longer be taken for granted. The Government itself has acknowledged that, while the UK is currently food secure, the conditions underpinning that security are shifting. Preserving the capacity to feed the nation from its own waters, says the APPG, offers strategic insurance against future shocks.

Daniel Zeich­ner Labour MP for Cam­bridge, former Defra min­is­ter and chair of the APPG on Fish­er­ies’ Action Plan

In 2024, UK fish­ing ves­sels landed around 745,000 tonnes of fish and shell­fish. At the same time, we impor­ted more than 1.1 mil­lion tonnes of sea­food. Fish­ing is part of our national story. But for an island nation, we too often fail to see the value of our own seas. I saw this as Defra min­is­ter, with fish­er­ies as part of my brief – one com­plex policy area among sev­eral oth­ers, includ­ing farm­ing, food secur­ity and rural affairs, com­pet­ing for atten­tion.

I say this not to cri­ti­cise col­leagues but because I know the real­ity of finite time and resources. In that role, and before it as shadow min­is­ter, I met with people who fish around our coasts – who put food on tables here and around the world, who sus­tain coastal and island com­munit­ies from Corn­wall and Grimsby to Kil­keel and Shet­land, and who under­pin a sea­food eco­nomy that is part of a rather remark­able food sys­tem. I also saw how eas­ily the machinery of gov­ern­ment – even with very good people work­ing on this brief – over­looks fish­ing’s pro­duct­ive con­tri­bu­tions, mostly without mean­ing to. Per­haps if we viewed the sec­tor as a stra­tegic asset, this would be dif­fer­ent.

That weak­ness is what the APPG on Fish­er­ies’ new Action Plan for a Thriv­ing and Sus­tain­able UK Fish­ing Industry sets out to cor­rect. Draw­ing on evid­ence from fish­er­men and women around the UK’s coasts, this cross-party plan calls on gov­ern­ment to pub­lish a coher­ent, long-term strategy for UK fish­ing and the wider sea­food sec­tor, as part of the com­mit­ment it has made to deliver a Sus­tain­able Ocean Plan next year. This should be developed in part­ner­ship with the devolved admin­is­tra­tions and industry stake­hold­ers, and recog­nise the sec­tor’s stra­tegic import­ance to the resi­li­ence of our food sys­tem.

We export much of what we catch and import much of what we eat – this is part of the real­ity of a glob­ally integ­rated sea­food eco­nomy. We should be hon­est about that. But our land­ings also point to a sig­ni­fic­ant source of food if those sup­ply chains are dis­rup­ted – as we have seen, by pan­demic and geo­pol­it­ical shocks, and as they increas­ingly will be by the strain cli­mate change and biod­iversity loss are pla­cing on food sys­tems world­wide. Gov­ern­ment itself acknow­ledges that while the UK is food secure for now, the con­di­tions under­pin­ning that secur­ity are shift­ing. Within this con­text, the abil­ity to feed the nation from the seas around us is a stra­tegic asset.

Of course, this asset depends on our domestic catch­ing capa­city. On act­ive fish­ing boats around our coasts, on skip­pers and crews to go to sea, and on pro­duct­ive and sus­tain­ably man­aged waters to be there when they are needed. This makes a diverse, sus­tain­able, work­ing UK fish­ing fleet a mat­ter of national food secur­ity.

Dur­ing our inquiry, those across the sec­tor were very frank about the pres­sures facing fish­ing. Rising costs, shift­ing stocks, man­age­ment issues, com­pet­i­tion for space at sea, a work­force crisis… all layered over years to cre­ate a “per­fect storm” and real pres­sure on the people work­ing in it. In the face of these issues, the call for sup­port we heard was remark­ably mod­est – to be recog­nised for their con­tri­bu­tion and sup­por­ted by gov­ern­ment in line with other food-pro­du­cing and eco­nomic sec­tors.

This is the gap the action plan fills. It offers a prac­tical frame­work of 38 recom­mend­a­tions built with the sec­tor, across parties and nations, designed as a pack­age and ready for gov­ern­ment to act on. We have evid­ence and broad con­sensus, but are still fail­ing to recog­nise prop­erly the sig­ni­fic­ance of the sec­tor to our food sys­tem’s resi­li­ence. This is the chance to change that.

For an island nation, we have looked past our own seas for too long. We would not accept this about the land that feeds us. And we should not accept it about the waters that do either.

“I saw how eas­ily the machinery of gov­ern­ment... over­looks fish­ing’s pro­duct­ive con­tri­bu­tions”