Stocks in Trouble

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which species fished by UK vessels have fallen below sustainable fishing levels; and in which year fish stocks were first threatened in each case.

Since 1998, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has applied precautionary reference points as the basis for its advice, identifying which harvesting rates meet precautionary criteria.

These criteria aim to ensure sustainability by keeping spawning stock biomass (SSB, the weight of mature fish) above a minimum precautionary level, Bpa (set high enough to allow a margin of error sufficient to keep SSB above a lower limit level, Blim), and keeping the fishing rate (F) below a maximum precautionary level, Fpa (set low enough to allow a margin of error sufficient to keep F below an upper limit level, Flim).

Based on advice from ICES in 2007, which evaluated stock assessments using fisheries data for years up to and including 2006, and survey data up to and including 2007, the following stocks fished by the UK have experienced unsustainable fishing levels when compared to the maximum precautionary level:

(i) North Sea

Herring since 2006

(ii) West of Scotland

Haddock since 2006

(iii) Irish Sea

Cod since the introduction of precautionary reference points in 1998, sole since 2006

(iv) Western Channel

Both plaice and sole since the introduction of precautionary reference points in 1998

(v) Widely distributed

North-east Atlantic mackerel since 2001, blue whiting since 1999

For a number of stocks it has not been possible to make a quantitative comparison because the level of F was uncertain in 2007.

This includes some stocks which have shown a long-term decline such as cod in the west of Scotland.

Then from the USA, stocks which are now being removed from the endangered list:

Washington, D.C. -- NOAA announced today that seven stocks have been removed from the overfishing list and no new stocks added in their annual report to Congress on the status of fishing stocks.

The report tracks both population levels and harvest rates for species caught in federal waters between three and 200 miles off U.S. coasts.

This year’s report indicates that seven stocks have been removed from the overfishing list, four stocks have increased population levels and are no longer overfished, and three stocks are now listed as fully “rebuilt.”

see: http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=10497610285