IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v1y2010i1d10.1038_ncomms1013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of 118 years of industrial fishing on UK bottom trawl fisheries

Author

Listed:
  • Ruth H. Thurstan

    (University of York, Heslington, York, N. Yorks YO10 5DD, UK.)

  • Simon Brockington

    (Marine Conservation Society, Unit 3, Wolf Business Park)

  • Callum M. Roberts

    (University of York, Heslington, York, N. Yorks YO10 5DD, UK.)

Abstract

In 2009, the European Commission estimated that 88% of monitored marine fish stocks were overfished, on the basis of data that go back 20 to 40 years and depending on the species investigated. However, commercial sea fishing goes back centuries, calling into question the validity of management conclusions drawn from recent data. We compiled statistics of annual demersal fish landings from bottom trawl catches landing in England and Wales dating back to 1889, using previously neglected UK Government data. We then corrected the figures for increases in fishing power over time and a recent shift in the proportion of fish landed abroad to estimate the change in landings per unit of fishing power (LPUP), a measure of the commercial productivity of fisheries. LPUP reduced by 94%—17-fold—over the past 118 years. This implies an extraordinary decline in the availability of bottom-living fish and a profound reorganization of seabed ecosystems since the nineteenth century industrialization of fishing.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruth H. Thurstan & Simon Brockington & Callum M. Roberts, 2010. "The effects of 118 years of industrial fishing on UK bottom trawl fisheries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1013
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1013
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms1013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lu, Yifan & Yamazaki, Satoshi, 2023. "Fish to fight: Does catching more fish increase conflicts in Indonesia?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    2. Kastoryano, Stephen & Vollaard, Ben, 2022. "Nautical Patrol and Illegal Fishing Practices," Discussion Paper 2022-016, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    3. Kastoryano, Stephen & Vollaard, Ben, 2023. "Unseen annihilation: Illegal fishing practices and nautical patrol," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    4. Steadman, Daniel & Appleby, Thomas & Hawkins, Julie, 2014. "Minimising unsustainable yield: Ten failing European fisheries," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 192-201.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.