Researchers from the University of Exeter have raised alarm bells over the extent of overfishing within the UK’s domestic waters, estimated that somewhere around 80% of UK seafood demand is now met by imports from overseas fisheries.

Compiling over a century of data, a new study has tracked the UK’s journey from ‘seafood self-sufficiency’ to a dependence on imports, which today stands at more than six times greater than it did in the 1900s and ships in seafood from almost 90 countries.

Catch in UK waters has been on a stark decline since the 1970s due both to overfishing and the subsequent regulations brought in to help rebuild fish stocks. During this time frame, imports grew to meet the growing supply gap and by 1985, imports had overtaken domestic landings.

Seafood eaten in the UK is mostly the ‘big five’ – cod, haddock, salmon, tuna, and prawns – which are either in a state of depletion or non-existence within British waters. Imported seafood is now shipped from as far as 2,000 miles, with China becoming the largest market for imports.

“The historical records show that the UK imported from five countries in 1900 and 89 by the year 2020,” said the study’s first author, Zoe Heard from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall. “We now import seafood from all continents – showing how our demand for seafood has an increasingly global reach.

“With that growing reach comes a responsibility to ensure British seafood imports are not driving overfishing and destructive fishing in distant waters.”

Earlier this year, the Environmental Investigations Agency released a report on the deadly impact of overfishing and overexploitation of marine fisheries resources off the coast of West Africa and the people leaving their homes in search of a better life in Europe. It highlights that over the course of the last seven decades, half the catch in the Senegalese Exclusive Economic Zone has been taken by distant-water fishing fleets, putting a strain on resources and forcing locals to make the deadly journey to Europe via the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, or the Strait of Gibraltar.

Co-author of the latest research, Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of Exeter and lead scientist for the Convex Seascape Survey, said: “The seas around countries like the UK once supported prolific fisheries that easily met national demand for fish. But more than 100 years of intensive overfishing and mismanagement have diminished opportunities, forcing us to get fish from further afield.

“These distant fisheries in places like West Africa and the Indian Ocean often deprive local communities of badly needed seafood and employment.”

According to Heard, the results signify a clear and urgent need for improved fisheries management in the UK to help local stocks recover, as well as a diversification of consumption beyond the ‘big five’ species. There is then the matter of stocks limits and quota to contend with alongside the annual negotiations held with the EU over fishing limits in British waters. 

“We need better international collaboration to break the serial depletion of popular food fish,” said Heard. 

Funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme as well as the Fishmonger’s Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust, the research has been published in the scientific journal, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries under the title ‘The UK’s expanding global reach for seafood over 120 years.’

“The study emphasises the importance of considering not only how our fish are caught, but where our fish come from,” said the paper’s co-author, Ruth Thurstan, associate professor in marine and historical ecology at the University of Exeter. “Our favoured species are not only caught using highly destructive gear, but the distances these products travel can also have a high carbon footprint.

“Switching to fish caught in UK waters using sustainable fishing methods both supports local coastal communities and efforts to reduce carbon.” 

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