By Nicky Jordaan, National Marine Biological Library volunteer
The release earlier this year of Ocean with David Attenborough, and the accompanying book, Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness, have served as timely reminders of the vital role the ocean plays in the health and resilience of our planet. MBA researchers, including Senior Research Fellow Dr Bryce Stewart, were actively involved in the making of the film.
Dr Stewart is the research lead for the MBA’s Fisheries and Conservation group and was a key partner in the Pollack Fishing Industry Science Partnership (Pollack F.I.S.P.) project, which collected vital data about pollack movement, habitat choice, populations and their life history. He is also leading an investigation into the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) bloom in numbers in the UK this year, and the effect it is having on local fisheries.
The establishment of the MBA – to fish or not to fish
The MBA has a long history of fisheries research and was in part established to study the life history and ecology of food fishes such as herring and mackerel. At the time, there were two schools of thought; that fish populations were so great they could never be depleted and, alternately, that fishing practices (of the time) were unsustainable.
In 1900, Walter Garstang wrote an article in the JMBA titled The Impoverishment of the Sea. In the article he wrote:
“To face the established fact that bottom fisheries are not only exhaustible, but in rapid and continuous process of exhaustion; that the rate at which sea fishes multiply and grow even in favourable seasons, is exceeded by the rate of capture.”
Under the direction of Walter Garstang, the MBA opened up laboratories in Larne Harbour, Ireland and in Lowestoft, Suffolk. The Lowestoft laboratory is now the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Science (CEFAS).
The development of sea-going technology on fisheries management
The move from sailing boats to steam trawlers at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries resulted in a higher catch rate, as the steam trawlers were faster than the conventional sailing boats and thus more efficient at catching fish. An article in one of the many news cuttings scrapbooks in the MBA Archive noted that ‘since steam trawlers have been scouring the bed of the sea the catches of fish have been growing smaller by degrees and beautifully less‘ (Ramsgate Times, 5 August 1903).
In 1903 a steam trawler named Huxley was leased to the MBA, and the North Sea Fisheries Investigations headed by Garstang began ‘to regulate the practice of those industries and also to decide upon rules and laws most likely to be helpful to the increase and growth of the fish in deep water‘ (Sheffield Weekly Budget, 28 August 1903).
MBA Research Vessel Huxley. c. Marine Biological Association (Archive ref UF11)
The boat used otter and beam trawl to carry out the surveys, and the scientists tracked migrations and measured catches. Flat fish such as sole and plaice were marked or tagged, and a reward was offered to fisherman once those fish were caught and returned to the MBA. The Pollack F.I.S.P. project used acoustic tagging of fish in their project, but the principle is similar to the tagging of trawled fish in the early 1900s; a way to track fish migration.
A simultaneous survey was also undertaken with the ‘assistance of reliable masters of commercial fishing vessels (Plymouth Mercury, 7 July 1903), much the same again as the Pollack F.I.S.P. project. This survey worked with charter skippers, recreational anglers and conducted community surveys. The collaboration with around 100 trawler owners, both sailing and steam, resulted in more comprehensive data being added to Garstang’s findings.
The amount expended by the Government on the North Sea Fisheries investigations during the five years between 1902-1907 was estimated to have been around £70,000, culminating in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, displaying the work carried out by the MBA. Specimens of pollack were displayed to demonstrate their annual growth rate, as well as new research which enabled scientists to determine the age of a fish by their scales (Swansea Leader, 11 January 1907).
Dr Bryce Stewart, MBA Senior Research Fellow. c. Marine Biological Association
What does the future hold for fisheries management research?
The continued research work of the MBA and marine scientists, such as Dr Bryce Stewart, is extremely valuable and timely regarding the conservation and protection of our oceans. Bottom trawling has been an ongoing issue within fisheries management since the infancy of the MBA, and is still very much relevant today. Bottom trawling will continue, but scientists insist that the practice needs to be properly managed through the protection and extension of MPAs, in collaboration with the adaptation of fishing gear.
Many organisations worldwide, including the MBA, will continue to be at the forefront of conservation and scientific research, ultimately steering future policies, regulations and laws which will enable the protection of our precious oceans.
Sources
- MBA Archive – Newspaper Cuttings MB11.1/MB11.2/MB11.5
- Garstang, W – The Impoverishment of the Sea. (1900), Journal of the Marine Biological Association, 6(1) 1-69
- Thurstan, R., Brockington, S. & Roberts, C. The effects of 118 years of industrial fishing on UK bottom trawl fisheries. Nat Commun 1, 15 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1013
