The UK will be able to meet its fish demand the whole year if its fishing stocks are restored, a study states. (Photo: www.neweconomics.org)

Domestic fish stocks can only meet demand for 233 days a year: report

UNITED KINGDOM
Tuesday, August 21, 2012, 23:50 (GMT + 9)

A new report has revealed that current UK fish stocks can only meet domestic demand for fish for 233 days a year – meaning that 21 August is the last day UK residents can eat homegrown fish. To meet demand afterward, the UK imports cod and haddock from as far away as Iceland and China. 

Further, currently at least one in three fish eaten in UK comes from outside the European Union (EU) as a result of overfishing practices in UK waters, the 2012 Fish Dependence report shows.

The top fish species imported into the UK in 2010 were cod, tuna, prawn/shrimp and salmon.

According to new research from the New Economics Foundation (nef) and OCEAN2012 the UK would be able to meet its domestic fish demand for the whole year and even become a seafood exporter if it restored its commercial fish stocks.

Despite these facts, the UK is faring better than many of its European counterparts: the fish dependence days of France, Germany and Italy fall on 21 May, 20 April and 21 April, respectively, while EU citizens on average run out of fish on 7 July.

The report Jobs Lost at Sea published by nef this year estimates the benefits of rebuilding 43 European stocks (out of more than 150) and finds that:

• Restoring commercial UK fish stocks to their maximum sustainable yield (MSY) would increase the additional catch in 467,292 tonnes, or 1.6 times the current fish import deficit;
• If directed only to human food consumption, the additional landings from rebuilding UK stocks could provide for the annual consumption of 23 million people and meet the annual fish demand;
• At current levels of consumption, restoring UK stocks would allow the UK to become a net exporter.

Reforming the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) represents an opportunity to bring fish back to UK and EU seas.

The organisations nef and OCEAN2012 call for immediate action to:

• Reduce fishing capacity to bring it in line with available resources by improving data collection, transparency and reporting and by prioritising scientific advice in determining catch quotas;
• Promote responsible consumption among all EU consumers, and implement measures that are conducive to more responsible fishing outside EU waters;
• Make conservation profitable, by making access to resources conditional on social and environmental criteria;
• Use public funds to deliver social and environmental goods by investing in environmentally constructive measures, research and stakeholder involvement, as well as enforcing sustainable quotas and practices.

“The next few months are critical to decide the fate of EU fisheries,” said Ian Campbell, OCEAN2012 co-ordinator for the UK. “The UK has been a progressive voice compared in the reform of the EU’s fisheries management but it will need to be much more ambitious and push others in the same direction if it wants to see the end of overfishing in and by the EU.”

By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

Print