London, May 5 (Inditop.com) The UK trawl fishing fleet has to work 17 times harder to catch the same amount of fish today as it did when most of its boats were powered by sail in the late 1800’s, a new research has found.
The phenomenon has been attributed to a sharp decline in the abundance of fish.
Researchers from the University of York (UOY) and the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) used UK government data on the amount of fish caught and the size and number of boats involved – the fleet’s fishing power – to analyse the change in fish stocks since 1889.
They found that trawl fish landings peaked in 1937, 14 times higher than today, and the availability of bottom-living fish to the fleet fell by 94 percent.
The findings are the result of a study using previously overlooked records and suggest that the decline in stocks of popular fish such as cod, haddock and plaice is far more profound than previously thought.
In a release issued by the UOY, Ruth Thurstan, lead author of the study from the varsity’s Environment Department, said: “We were astonished to discover that we landed over four times more fish into England and Wales in 1889 than we do today.”
“For all its technological sophistication and raw power, today’s trawl fishing fleet has far less success than its sail-powered equivalent of the late 19th century because of the sharp declines in fish abundance.”
The findings suggest that the damage to fisheries is greater and has taken place over a much longer period than previously acknowledged, pre-dating developments such as the Common Fisheries Policy which are usually blamed for declining stocks.
The research is published in Nature Communications, the new online science journal from the publishers of Nature.
