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At the start of 2024, Jerry Percy, who led the New Under Ten Fishermen’s Association, dedicated to small boats, said he started to receive lots of calls from members. “They were calling my office to report that a lack of fish in the inshore grounds were putting their livelihoods in peril,” he said.
The fishers said they had noticed a depletion of species such as pollack, typically caught off Britain’s coasts.
Percy, who is now retired, along with his organisation, blames the UK government’s “poor fisheries management decisions” combined with the climate crisis for the dwindling fish populations close to shore. “We’ve lost a quarter of the inshore fleet since 2012, we are a shadow of our former selves.”
It was this that prompted Percy and others to join campaigners outside the high court in London this week, where Blue Marine Foundation, a marine conservation charity, had brought a case challenging the government’s decision to, it claims, go against scientific advice when setting fish catch limits post-Brexit.
Its case argued that the unsustainable management of fish populations by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was irresponsible and risked the sustainability of fish stocks and fishers’ livelihoods.
“By continuing to allow exploitation above sustainable limits for so many species, the government is not only putting fish populations at risk but everything that replies on them, including the marine ecosystems and the fishing industry itself,” said Charles Clover, co-founder of Blue Marine Foundation.
The case against Defra focused on a determination of fishing quotas or catch limits for the year 2024, taken by the previous government in December 2023. It took a year to come to court.
Every year, the UK, EU and Norway negotiate catch limits for shared commercial fish species for the following year. They are advised by an independent scientific body on what is sustainable. In December 2023, that agreement resulted in a quota for 54% of fish populations being allocated at levels above scientific advice.
“I am not sure the public knows that what has been going on is that one stock after another is allowed to be caught above scientific advice year after year to keep the fleet fishing instead of taking appropriate conservation measures,” said Clover. “We cannot believe that is consistent with the law.”
Blue Marine Foundation said Defra acted contrary to its post-Brexit commitments to protect Britain’s marine environment and the fishing industry.
When the government introduced the Fisheries Act 2020, the first domestic fisheries legislation in nearly four decades, it said it would create a “world class” management regime drawing on “best available science” to ensure fish populations were healthy and sustainable.
Under the Joint Fisheries Statement, a requirement of the Fisheries Act, the government set eight objectives for managing fish populations, including sustainability, protection of ecosystems, reduction of bycatch and use of scientific advice.
In a written submission to the court on Wednesday, David Wolfe KC, for Blue Marine Foundation, said Defra had “slavishly” transposed the outcome of the catch limit negotiations without regard to the statutory provisions of the Fisheries Act. He asked the court to declare Defra’s decision on fishing quotas unlawful “so as to inform that process in the future”.
Defra denied acting slavishly and said it had taken into account “all relevant factors” when setting the quotas. In a written submission, Ned Westaway, for Defra, said the claim should be dismissed because it was “premised on a misunderstanding” and “ignores the wider international and regulatory context for the determination of fishing opportunities”.
Officials “had regard to the scientific advice and gave it appropriate weight”, he said.
The hearing, before Mrs Justice Lang, concluded on Wednesday, although judgment is not expected immediately.
Martin Yorwarth, a fisher from Newhaven who has two boats, one under-10 (metres) and a 14-metre trawler, was also on the steps of the high court this week. He, like many fishers, is nervous about the what the judge will conclude. “This case is a last chance for getting equality for the inshore fleet. We hope that Blue Marine win and that fish stocks will be managed more sustainably for the benefit of fishing communities and fishing towns across the UK.”
