PRESS RESOURCE
Finding accurate information on industrial fishing and its impacts can be daunting. Here are a few key documents and sources that are always useful- wether you're a journalist or someone who just wants to be armed with the facts.
Further down you can find press clippings on Brixham and Industrial Fishing in the town
Report on UK sea fisheries statistics 2019
UK national sea fisheries statistics 2020, report on fish stocks
UK National Fisheries Statistics information on the state of UK fish stocks and industrial fishing 2021
A cover of a new report by leading fisheries experts shares novel analysis on the scale, context, and impacts of the age-old fishing practice of bottom trawling. The report shares new data and analysis combined with policy recommendations to inspire constructive action around this controversial practice.
Published on March 25, 2021 Demersal trawling cause as much carbon dioxide emissions as air traffic, according to a new study. When the trawls are dragged along the sea floor large amounts of carbon is released, which increases global warming and makes the sea more acidic. In addition, bottom trawling threatens both ocean productivity and biodiversity.
Letter from CEO Devon Wildlife Trust on evidence against Bottom Trawling sent to Anthony Mangnall MP
Report on fish migration due to climate change and impact on stocks. Coastal regions in northeast England and southern Scotland were identified as some of the most ‘at risk’ in Europe, primarily because of the vulnerability of stocks combined with low catch diversity. However, fisheries in northern Scotland and the South West of England were assessed as less vulnerable.
Marine ecosystems around the UK can both increase and decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Carbon loss and gain globally by these ecosystems has the potential to influence climate change. This POSTnote summarises the marine ecosystems in the UK that contribute to these processes, their current and potential future extent, and pressures on them
Our Seas is a coaltion of stakeholders and industry professionals. The website has an excellent FAQ section detailing the damage of beam, industrial bottom trawl and scalllop dredging.
Only a third of UK’s key fish populations are not overfished. Guardian article on the issue. Only a third of the UK’s key fish populations are in a healthy state, and catches of key species such as cod should be reduced this year as the UK negotiates fishing rights with the EU, according to the first post-Brexit assessment of the UK’s fisheries.
Bottom-trawling for fish releases more carbon dioxide each year than Germany, a study has revealed, yet this is not included in national carbon accounts
This article is more than 1 year old Fishing industry still ‘bulldozing’ seabed in 90% of UK marine protected areas. The Guardian newspaper outlines that More than 90% of Britain’s offshore marine protected areas are still being bottom-trawled and dredged, two years after analysis of the extent of destructive fishing exposed them as “paper parks”, according to data shared with the Guardian.
Open Seas is an organisation who want to bring about a just transition to lower impact, inshore fishing and eliminate harmful beam, bottom trawling and dredging
Protesters from all over the UK came to Brixham to call for Bottom Trawling and Dredging to be banned. They waved large banners and made speeches, and made the first ever protest against industrial fishing in a UK port.
The study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, used underwater video cameras to observe that Marine Protected Areas increased fish populations by almost 400% According to a team at the University of Plymouth, a Marine Protected Area (MPA) has proven itself to be capable of repopulating an overfished stock.
Modern food systems are wasteful and inefficient – they require large volumes of the same species, of the same size, in order to be processed mechanically, so this determines how industrial vessels fish. The small-scale fishers tend to catch a wider range of species in lower volumes and of varying sizes, making their fish inappropriate for today’s industrial-scale food processing systems. This is in spite of the fact that more and more people are now actively choosing to buy ‘local’ or ‘ethical’, taking an interest in where their fish comes from as a result of rising awareness of the degradation of our seas.
Academic research has found that the number of species - and their diversity - rose in the Lyme Bay MPA in the decade after it was established. Lyme Bay is being hailed as a model of how to promote sustainable fishing and protect biodiversity in a way that involves local communities, as many small-scale fishermen remain fearful of overregulation, and for the future of their industry.
Research on carbon released by the devastating fishing method of Industrial Bottom Trawling
Scallop Dredging is a highly damaging practice. 95% of our scallops are currently harvested in this way. It devastates marine ecologies as well as coastal communities with its negative effects.
PRESS CLIPPINGS
Thank you to the journalists who have seen the importance of what is happening here in Brixham
Media outlets all have their own take on the issues of industrial fishing in Brixham and its implications. Here are a few clippings of how the issue has been seen nationally and locally - from Private Eye to The Telegraph, Fishing News to the Guardian.
