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UK fish stocks cannot meet demand - report
Published: 05 August, 2010
ANOTHER downbeat report on the state of Britain's fish stocks has just been published.
The study by the New Economics Foundation and the European lobbying group Ocean 2012 says that the UK fishing industry cannot cope with demand because it has supplies which only last for seven months of the year.
The report is called Fish Dependence and argues that a full reform of the Common Fisheries Policy is the only answer. Recent events such as Kent fishermen running out of quota five months before the new catch allocation comes in certainly backs up some of the study's claims. But the latest scientific reports on fish stocks around the British coastline suggest a brighter picture than has been suggested, with the cod fishery showing signs of real recovery.
The Fish Dependence report have taken the stock decline and rising fish consumption in each European state to find the date when that country starts to eat fish from another part of the world.
In Britain if people only ate fish from UK coastal waters that supply would have been used up this week, based on current consumption levels. Each UK citizen eats about 45 lbs of fish a year.
The report says Britons need to take a different approach when it comes to eating fish by only buying sustainable local fish and seafood. Kt also argues that the situation presents a unique opportunity to create a new fisheries model that will restore marine eco systems and thus fish stocks.
Critics will no doubt argue that Britons eat a variety of fish from different parts of the world throughout a year, such as cod and haddock from Iceland or Norway, prawns from Asia and tuna from the Indian Ocean. Conversely, a lot of shellfish caught in UK waters is exported to Europe and beyond.
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