Bally Philp, a local fisherman from the Isle of Skye in Scotland can recall a time when his father would bring in a catch of cod “knee high and of a decent size”. A catch of cod like that would make the front page of newspapers up and down the country today.

Such is the health of fish populations within UK waters that almost all of Scotland’s fishing sector today is based on just shellfish and scallops. In the time Bally has been fishing, all the demersal fish – those like cod, plaice, or any other of those ‘fish and chip shop’ menu favourites – have gone; fished into obscurity within Scottish waters.

“That change has happened in just one generation,” says Philp.

A representative of the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation, Philp is at the sharp end of an overfishing crisis, one that has been driven primarily by the destructive practices involved with bottom-trawling at an industrial scale – a form of fishing that is currently – as the UK oceans charity, Oceana would put it – “gutting our UK seas”.

When Oceana carried out its annual survey of the 104 fish populations caught in UK waters last year, it found that more than one third were being seriously overfished, while one quarter of that was being depleted to the brink of a population collapse.

Three populations, including cod from the west of Scotland, have now “reached a crisis so extreme,” that a total ban on all catches has been recommended by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.

But the dire state of the UK’s fish population is not being addressed quickly enough by policymakers, argues the NGO. In fact, it’s the government’s “chaotic and unjust” approach to catch quotas – giving preference to industrial scale operations; allowing bottom-trawling within marine protected areas; and enabling an unsustainable disregard for ocean health and coastal economies – that is only making the situation worse.

“Overfishing in UK waters, and the destruction of ocean wildlife it drives, is fundamentally a political choice,” said Hugo Tagholm, executive director of Oceana UK. “Year on year, catch limits have been set too high, with no regard for those small, local boats that need healthy seas to survive. Right now, we are allowing wealthy corporations to asset-strip our seas and move on, with no regard for coastal communities or our heritage as an ocean nation.”

A Roadmap to Regeneration

But this week marks a pivotal moment in the fight for ocean restoration, as Oceana UK finally goes live with Mission Regeneration: A Roadmap to End Overfishing and Restore Life to UK Seas. It’s a blueprint, created for the new government, to restore and regenerate the UK’s vastly depleted waters.

Built around five core principles: science, fairness, resilience, transparency, and respect, the roadmap provides time-bound actions for the Labour government to now take, culminating in a call for a legally-binding, science-led commitment to end overfishing by the end of 2025.

It also carries a demand for an “outright ban” on supertrawlers – vessels over 100 metres long – which act to “hoover up vast quantities of ocean life.”

Crucial to the approach is leveling the playing field for the UK’s small-scale fisheries so that “those that fish with nature, rather than against it,” argues Tagholm, “are rewarded with a greater share of quota and more taxpayer money goes towards sustainable practices.”

Oceana analysis states that this year, 50% of the North Sea total allowed catch limits agreed between the UK and EU policymakers were set too high, in line with how they have been set for the “past five years.” Here in UK waters, while small boats (vessels under 10 metres in length) make up 79% of the overall fishing fleet, they receive only 2% of the quota opportunities. Most staggering, however, is that last year some 33,000 hours of bottom-trawling were recorded within UK marine protected areas or waters within three miles of the coast. 

For creel fishermen like Philp, helping the UK seas recover from the devastation of bottom-trawling, while giving the UK small fisheries sector the economic boost it is crying out for, will be a pivotal moment for the British fishing industry.

“Small-scale, local fishers, who rely on a healthy, productive ocean, need action now,” he says. “If we ended overfishing once and for all, how many more whales and dolphins could the ecosystem support? How many more fishermen?”

An opportunity not to be missed

These aren’t just the concerns of UK fishers and environmental campaigners. Public awareness is growing over the plight that UK seas face. In a recent poll conducted by Oceana, it was discovered that eight in ten Brits are now worried about the impacts of declining fish populations on both people’s livelihoods and ocean wildlife such as seabirds and dolphin. What’s more, 78% have since backed Oceana’s calls upon the government to get stricter on catch limits.

But to do this effectively, the government will need to reorganise both its thinking and its approach to the problem of overfishing. Fishing and ocean health are not only issues for policymakers focused on environment or industry, but also climate, communities, and trade.

“The ocean and its fish population is very much perceived as a commodity,” Amy Hammond, fisheries and habitats campaign lead at Oceana UK, tells Oceanographic Magazine. “That’s a mindset that needs to be shifted within this fisheries management conversation. 

“The case we make in our new Roadmap is to manage fisheries for public good. It’s looking at them in a way that rebuilds our connection with the sea. When you think about it, a conversation like ‘food waste’, for example, speaks much to the same issue as ‘overfishing’, which is – we are currently not living within the limits of the planetary boundaries.”

This will come down heavily on how supply chains are managed, something Oceana UK hasn’t overlooked, calling for the introduction of a ‘due diligence supply chain obligation for seafood’ to set legally-binding minimum environmental, societal, and safety standards by the end of 2025.

A crucial part of this conversation, Amy admits, will be the supermarket giants and other “huge businesses with a big voice and a lot of power.”

“They need to be calling on the government, too, to end overfishing if they want to be able to continue stocking sustainable British fish and supporting local fisheries,” she continues. “It’s in their interest as well that the government gets to grips with this.”

While the current picture of UK seas might be a little dim, there is plenty of room for optimism. It’s according to Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of Exeter that by following science “we can restore our seas to thriving abundance and full health.”

“What is standing in the way of this is not a lack of data, knowledge, or technology,” he says. “What is standing in the way of this is political inaction, pure and simple. A comprehensive overhaul of the government’s strategy is needed, and Oceana’s report has started that conversation.”

At COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan this week, the British prime minister Keir Starmer made public the government’s new climate target to reduce emissions by 81% by 2035 against 1990 levels. To achieve this, it will be imperative that the government adopts strengthened approaches to halt the destruction of biodiversity and act to protect and restore natural habitats across the UK, including its waters.

The UK’s decision last year to shutdown sandeel fisheries in Scottish and Channel Island waters suggests this is a government prepared to act on behalf of the environment. Its next step will be to reconfigure its approach to fishing quotas and practices.   

“Ending overfishing would bring back the abundance of our seas, provide resilience in the face of the climate crisis, and boost coastal economies,” says Oceana’s Tagholm. “It’s an opportunity that should not be missed.” 

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