NORTH SEA FISHING INDUSTRY
North Sea fishing is today only a shadow of what it once was. In the 1920s halibut and skate had to be individually winched off the boat by crane ! Tuna were still present feeding on the huge shoals of herring.
In more recent times the size and quantity of fish landed has gone rapidly down and fishing boats have had to go further afield to find fish. In the 1960 and 70s mackerel and herring stocks collapsed with the former never recovering. The numbers of other commercial species such as cod, hake, and whiting have fallen to dangerously low levels.
Fishing has been so intense in some parts of the North Sea that they are trawled up to four times each year taking more than half the species in that area.
The current situation is that fish such as the cod is only a third of the minimum size laid down by scientists. In fact, since the 1990s virtually all the main species of fish netted in the North Sea for human consumption have become threatened.
Industrial fishing, set up in the 1950s, has increased greatly and now takes half of the weight of all fish landed in the North Sea each year.
One hugely contentious issue is that fishermen now throw back up to half their catch because the fish are too small, are the wrong species, or that the fishing boat is over its quota.
Fishing for short term gains has had a disastrous effect on the marine environment in the North Sea, and on the fishing industry itself.
Many fishermen, who were once away for 3 weeks at a time, are now thrown out of work and their fishing boats laid up.
NORTH SEA FISHING INDUSTRY
Since the 1980s dwindling fish stocks have brought about the decline of the North Sea Fishing Industry.
Overfishing, drift nets and fish quotas are some of the reasons given for the gradual decline of an industry where fishermen could be away at sea for as long as three weeks.