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Fisheries

The fortunes of today's seabirds are tied up with fisheries more than any other human activity. Notwithstanding growing concerns about climate change, fishing remains the most widespread and immediate agent of change on global marine biodiversity.

The pattern of fishing in UK waters, repeated worldwide, has proved unsustainable for many fish stocks, the fishing industry and the wider marine environment. Not only has overfishing in the north-east Atlantic run down fish stocks and the fishing industry but it has also had powerful knock-on effects on seabirds and the rest of our marine wildlife.
 
We promote changing the way fisheries are managed to make them more sensitive to the needs of the marine environment, invoking an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.

Fishing practices such as the entanglement of seabirds in nets and on hooked lines kill birds directly but fisheries also exert more subtle indirect effects on seabird populations, destabilising their community structure through manipulating the food chain:

Discards and seabirds

Up to half the fish caught by fishing vessels is routinely thrown overboard, dead, as 'discards'. This, along with other fish waste jettisoned, is thought to have led to an increase this century in numbers of scavenging birds, notably fulmars, gannets and gulls which find rich pickings behind trawlers, although changes in fish stocks and management are now shifting the balance again.

See our report Net loss - seabirds gain? Implications of fisheries management for seabirds scavenging discards in the northern North Sea.

A bonanza of fish fry

Fishing has reduced stocks of large fish (such as cod and mackerel) which eat smaller fish (such as sprats and sandeels), allowing the latter to multiply. This potentially increases the food supply for seabirds like kittiwakes and puffins and enabled an 'industrial fishery' for sandeels to develop in the 1950s.

We promote an ecosystem approach to fisheries management

Since around 2000, however, sandeels have become less abundant, apparently due to climate-driven sea warming adversely affecting the plankton mix on which sandeel larvae thrive. In the last thirty years there has been a dramatic regime shift in the plankton assemblage of the North Sea, with a warm water zooplankton replacing (but at much lower abundance) the former cold water species.

We need to ensure that industrial fishing does not aggravate the systematic depletion of the sandeel stock. To find out more, check out our page on Industrial fisheries: how sustainable are they?

Promoting better management

In pursuit of better managed fisheries to address all these imbalances, the 2013 review of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is a major focus of the RSPB's European work. To find out more about the RSPB's work to ensure a reformed CFP is ecologically sustainable and embraces an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, follow the link in the left hand menu to the 'Common Fisheries Policy' page.

Public pressure for sustainable fisheries

We strongly endorse efforts to encourage consumers to choose seafood from sustainable sources. Since 1998 we have been official supporters of the Marine Stewardship Council whose mission is to use its fishery certification and ecolabelling programme to contribute to improving the health of the world's oceans.

As part of our own sustainable sourcing policy, we endeavour to provide only responsibly sourced fish in our own catering outlets, whether for staff or for visitors at our nature reserves.

Last modified: 14 April 2010

Fisheries

• EU Common Fisheries policy
• Industrial fisheries: how sustainable are they?
• Seabird bycatch