Category: Blog

The Company’s Oceans Programme works to facilitate the global sharing of knowledge around the management of fisheries and the ocean. As part of this, the Fisheries Charitable Trust organised an exchange visit with a group of civil servants and industry members to learn about the co-management frameworks operating in the USA. The experience provided options for consideration as the UK builds a new system for fisheries management and collaborative research, post-Brexit.  

The group attended the federal ‘New England Fisheries Management Council’ meeting in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and travelled to Rhode Island to visit the Commercial Fisheries Research Institute, and to Port Judith speak to the local fishing industry on fisheries research and management.    

Fisheries Exchange Program Delegation Members 

Robbie Fisher, Head of Domestic Fisheries Sustainability and Devolution, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs  

Richard Hoskin, Head of Fisheries & Marine Conservation Management, Marine Management Organisation 

Lewis Tattersall, Head of Fisheries Management 

Fiona Taylor, Head of Sea Fisheries, Policy and Grants, DAERA 

Hannah Fennell, Head of Orkney Fisheries Association 

Emma Plotnek, Executive Director, Fishing into the Future 

Alison Freeman, Fisheries Programme Manager, Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust  

Emma Plotnek, shared some of her experiences from the exchange:  

“The U.S. has a very formalised management system conducted with authority, integrity and accountability and sets the right tone for the discussion when making decisions. Whilst the structure may not be perfect, stakeholders understood the processes in place, and subsequently, they knew when and how to intervene. At its core, this is the essence of co-management.  

Important, life altering , decisions on fisheries and marine management are discussed and agreed upon at Fisheries Council meetings.  All participants at the council meetings had the opportunity to speak publicly to the council – but there was one rule – you have a strict 3-minute timer to keep to. We saw a range of politicians, fishers and scientists take the stand, with carefully curated messages on emotional issues but, they tended to be spoken in a respectful, interesting and succinct manner. We saw speakers preparing and perfecting their speeches beforehand in the lobby – crowds of fishermen huddled round, offering advice to their nominated spokesperson. I asked myself, could the UK benefit by having more order in how we communicate, and could we work harder on our messaging?   

The Commercial Fisheries Research Institute (CFRI) values the contribution the fishing industry play in the design and development of research projects and was thus set up to support industry’s ideas and to obtain funding. Just like the Council meetings, collaboration, in this instance between industry and academics, are part of the landscape of fisheries management. The UK differs from the U.S. system in that, whilst we also value this collaborative approach, a scientific support body like the CFRI, which is open to all fisheries and offers its services for free, does not exist.  

This leads to me to my third and final point. It was clear from the lavish hotel where the Council meeting was held, the extensive support network that surrounds each of the Council meetings, and the resources channelled into the CFRI and fisheries research more broadly, that significant funding was being spent on managing the U.S’s fishing and marine resources. These funds were being spent on processes and systems which enable stakeholders from a wide range of backgrounds an equal and fair opportunity to influence fisheries management and/or science. Whilst the UK also invests heavily in its fisheries and marine resources, in comparison, these processes don’t exist. Subsequently, the ability for the industry to communicate and to use research as evidence widens between rich and poor fishing associations/businesses. Charities are often left responsible for trying to bridge the funding gap and growing divide. Moving forward it is important that the UK Government  invests enough thought, time and financial resource to ensure that everyone who wants to engage in the fisheries management process is able to and comes away satisfied with the mechanisms to participate.”

Fishers across the UK are eligible for a range of grants to support their businesses and the industry, however the application process is often complicated, particularly for a community that often has limited time, IT capacity and literary skills. The Fishing Animateurs, whom the Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust have supported and worked closely alongside since 2018, support fishers all over the UK to access government grant funding through three main themes of work: 

• improving health and safety on board vessels, 
• adding value to catch 
• improving shoreside infrastructure  

In 2022 they also secured funding to help make people’s vessels more energy efficient. 

The Animateurs focus on supporting the under-10-metre fleet and those who lack the IT or literacy skills to apply for funds. 

6 Month Review:  

• 62 applications 
• 35 projects have secured 

• £1.8m of funding 

Processing facilities 

5 funds have been secured for small processing businesses that demonstrate support for the small- scale fleet. 

Harbour Improvements 

Over £300,000 of harbour infrastructure improvements that mainly aim to increase fishers’s health and safety. Projects include: installing safety ladders, safer-to-use winches and a quad bike to transport equipment safely around the harbour. 

Health and Safety 

Keeping fishers safe at sea is one of the core goals of the animateurs’ work. Health and safety work can vary from helping fishers to putting in safety bars, securing spare lifejackets for vessels, to improving a wheelhouse to keep fishers dry and warm at sea. 

Energy Improvements 

When fuel prices increased, the Animateurs saw a huge demand in grant support for more fuel-efficient propellers. Since April 2022, they have supported 6 fishers to access funding to improve energy efficiency. 

Adding Value to Catch 

The Animateurs have been supporting individual fishers, and fishing associations to add value to their catch from catching to selling. The ability to add value to catch leads to a more resilient and productive fleet without needing to increase fishing efforts. 

One project is led by a collective of fishers in the south-east, who are investing in shared ice facilities as well as a cold processing room. Once complete, this will open the option of direct selling for 12 fishers who have access to the facilities. 

Other projects include accessing funding for refrigerated vehicles, to enable fishers to reach markets further afield where prices may be higher. We have also supported many shell-fishers to access high-end shellfish holding systems to reduce mortality of their catch. 

Looking Forward 

Before April 2023, the Animateurs aim to have submitted over 120 applications to the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme, securing £2.5 million for the industry. 

The involvement and support of local government is essential in developing a thriving UK fishing and seafood industry. To help raise awareness of the industry and the Company’s work within in, the Company hosted a stand at the 2022 Local Government Association Conference. A team of four, including Fisheries Programme Manager, Alison Freeman, met with hundreds of councillors, senior executives and CEOs showcasing the Fisheries Charitable Trust’s projects and educated delegates on the challenges and opportunities facing the fishing and seafood sector. The LGA Conference was held in-person for the first time since the pandemic, which resulted in a strong turnout of local government from across England. 

The level of interest in the FCFCT stand, across coastal and landlocked authorities, was outstanding, with many new and promising relationships forged. Councillors were keen to learn how their local authority could support their local seafood industries and become involved with our charitable work. 

One highlight from the conference was a visit from Lisa Nandy, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. We discussed the importance of fishing and aquaculture to coastal communities and the role the sector plays in supporting onshore and offshore livelihoods.  

The Conference followed a presentation at the LGA’s Coastal Special Interest Group, which featured the FCFCT and the Fishing Animateur project.  

You can follow the LGA Annual Conference as it happened via Twitter.

Last year, The Fishmongers’ Company, Fishing Animateurs, and Fishing into the Future formed a collaborative approach to fisheries research whereby fishers and scientists jointly develop a scientific proposal, based on a set of research needs set by the government with stakeholder input. This coalition, the Fisheries Industry Science Partnership (FISP) Network, works to connect fishers with scientists to identify potential research areas and unlock funding.

In 2022, the Animateurs spent February and March visiting ports across the UK to get ideas from industry. Ideas range from understanding new fisheries, creating more selective gear and reducing bird bycatch. From there, we have linked fishermen with researchers to develop project proposals. In 2022, FCFCT provided £180k to fund key research projects, that would have otherwise not been developed. The matched funding helped to leverage funds over £2.5m. 

Projects That Have Secured Funding 

• Identifying the most viable solutions and gear modifications to reduce bycatch in UK Nephrops fisheries. Lead applicants: Fishers, Peter Clarke (the Lily James) and Andrew Mack (Bright Ray), MarFishEco and Seafish 
• Evaluating lobster fishery opportunities at an offshore wind farm in the UK. Lead applicants: Welsh Fishermen’s Association and fisher Carl Davies, Aberystwyth University and Bangor University. 
• Addressing the impact of lost shell fishing gear. Lead applicants: Holderness Fishing Industry Group (HFIG) In partnership with the University of Hull 
• Investigating toxicity of pyridines to crustaceans, bringing evidence to the mystery mass crustacean mortality events in NE England (not FISP) Project leads: Whitby Commercial Fishing Association, Northeast Fishing Collective, Newcastle University 
• Using ‘disco’ lights to attract scallops into pots and traps. Lead applicants: FishTek Marine, Skipper Jon Ashworth, and other individual fisheries across England and Scotland.  
• Stock and population assessments for brown crabs in England and Wales, Lead applicants: Crab and Lobster Management Group, Bangor University, Seafish, Aberystwyth University. 
• Stock assessments for king crab in the northeast of England. Lead applicants: Holderness Fishing Industry Group (HFIG) and fisher Karl Price, University of Hull. 
• Quantifying ecosystem Benefits of UK Oyster Aquaculture Sites. Lead applicants: Envision, Atlantic Edge Oysters, Lindisfarne Oysters, University of Essex  

We also provided seed funds to support the development of the fisheries science ‘Centre of Excellence’ housed by the Highlands and Islands University and based in Shetland.  

Projects in the Making 

There are more projects in the making for this winters’ round of the FISP and UK Seafood Innovation Fund. 

Projects include: 

• Developing ropeless creels to reduce cetacean bycatch 
• Adding value to scallop by-product 
• Enhancing shellfisheries with oyster cultivation 
• Trials of catalytic hydrogen system designed to reduce carbon emissions in fishing vessels   
• Stocks assessments for herring and sprat in the Irish Sea 

The Fishmongers’ Company has an almost 40-year relationship with the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), a non-profit scientific and educational research centre in Bermuda, working to improve understanding and knowledge of the oceans.

This year (2022) funding from our Fisheries Charitable Trust, which has awarded annual grants for the past three years in honour of former Court Member Maldwin Drummond, has contributed key funding towards 11 students completing internships and summer courses at the BIOS institute, through the UK Associates of BIOS sponsorship programme. These courses provide essential training to students to gain experience and develop the research skills they require to become marine scientists.

Nicole Burt received full funding which enabled her to complete the Research Diving Methods Course. Already an accomplished recreational diver and a graduate of Southampton University, the course allowed her to gain new experience of specialised research dives. She learnt how to conduct surveys monitoring the health and biodiversity of coral reefs, collecting samples and completing experiments. As a result, she is now a fully qualified Research Diver which will open up further career opportunities. Nicole will now be completing a further internship as a teaching assistant for the BIOS Fall program supporting undergraduates with their studies. She said: “I am so excited to increase my skillset and to become a better scientist and educator. I really cannot thank the UK Associates of BIOS enough for believing in me and supporting the start of my career as a marine scientist.”

Pamela Schultz Midence, who graduated with a BSc Marine Science degree last year from the University of the Highlands and Islands, is another student who was granted the opportunity to undertake the Research Diving Methods Training course in Bermuda this year.  She said:

“Taking the RMD course has taught me techniques and methods that are currently used in research and surveys and are applicable in many disciplines. Obtaining these extra skill sets gives me the opportunity to apply these and develop further as a scientist. We have trained in a range of methods and techniques, including reef monitoring, in-situ ID and measurements, fish counts surveys, mapping, and reef restoration.”

The need to reduce carbon emissions in response to climate change is something being felt across all sectors of the economy, and the UK fishing industry is no exception. Following on from the Fisheries Innovation Scotland (FIS) Vessels of the Future conference, FIS and the Fishmongers Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust invited James Duthie Jr, a fisherman and naval architect from Fraserburgh, to embark on a knowledge exchange to Norway in order to learn from their innovations in reducing vessel CO2 emissions and explore its application to the UK fleet. Here James outlines his visit and some of the lessons learnt:

Norway has long been at the forefront of tackling vessel carbon emissions and for many years have been building liquefied natural gas (LNG)  fuelled, hybrid and even fully electric ships. Now their fishing fleet are following suit, and I was able to visit the world’s first LNG fuelled fishing vessel “Libas”, complete with a 350m³ LNG tank that is capable of providing a lower carbon alternative to the diesel normally used on board.

This was followed by a session at Wartsilä, one of the maritime sector’s top engine manufacturers, who are developing engines that can run on LNG, methanol, ammonia and hydrogen, all of which can produce fewer emissions than their diesel counterparts. This meeting then led on to a discussion with Sustainable Energy, a Norwegian catapult centre, whose primary purpose is to help develop the technologies required to enable the maritime industry in reducing emissions from ships, notably modelling their operations on UK catapult projects.

The day was finished off with a visit to Energy House, a test centre that is used by a number of industry partners to test the latest emission reduction technologies. Here I was able to see the installation of a Warstilä ammonia engine. They will soon be commissioning the unit and slowly ramping up testing.

A final meeting with Salt Ship Design, a leading ship designer in Norway was held to discuss the technical challenges of moving towards “net zero” in the maritime sector.

Having seen the great strides being made in Norway, the question now turns to how this can be applied to the UK context. Our fishing industry faces unique challenges that do not always apply to merchant shipping sector. Technology and policy to date has focused on larger ships and short sea routes, with regular opportunities to refuel, something that is often not the case for fishermen. The next step, I would argue for the fishing industry, is to focus on designing vessels capable of running on alternative fuels in order to then allow accurate comparison to existing diesel fuelled vessels against a number of benchmarks, the meeting of which would signal the opportunity to transition.

Technical

A technical benchmark will determine if the solution can actually be achieved. We are now seeing the development of engines capable of running on alternative fuels, however, it is imperative that we assess their suitability to fishing vessels specifically.

Regulation

The concept designs can then be benchmarked against the current rules that fishing vessels are built, operated and crewed under. From this we would be able to see what rules are lacking and what needs to be changed to make this a reality.

Financial

A financial benchmark will determine if the solution is even feasible for a fishing vessel owner. Reaching a point at which alternative fuels match or out compete existing fuels will be essential in incentivising uptake from skippers and vessel owners.

All of the above benchmarks are inherently linked to on another. Choosing the wrong technical solution can have serious financial implications. Any particular technical solution may then require further regulation and rules to be applied. In most cases this calls for increased costs.

Given fishing is particularly vulnerable to market forces, and that consumer demand is particularly price dependent, any moves to pass on increased costs to consumers is likely to prove particularly difficult, making the uptake of this technology highly contingent on establishing long term viability and cost effectiveness.

The post-Brexit Fisheries Act 2020 sets out the government’s ambition to manage British wild fisheries in a sustainable and evidenced-based manner. The Act requires fisheries policy authorities from the four devolved nations to prepare Fisheries Management Plans (FMP) for commercial fish and shellfish species. These FMPs will set out policies and management plans designed to achieve sustainable levels of exploitation for different species, areas and types of fishing activity.

For quota species, which have been subject to many years of scientific stock assessments to enable setting of catch limits and sharing of fishing opportunities, sufficient information exists to inform FMPs. However, for species that were formerly managed on a non-quota basis (“Non-Quota Stocks”, NQS), such as bass, dab and red mullet, less evidence exists to help develop FMPs that will ensure sustainable management going forward.

The Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust(FCFCT) wants to ensure FMPs are equitable, adaptive and benefit: the marine environment; the fishing sector; and the communities that rely on sustainable fisheries. The challenges involve: creating fair access to fishing opportunities; enabling industry to contribute towards management decisions; and ensuring transparent and publicly accountable governance processes going forwards.

To enable industry engagement, the FCFCT has funded Seafish to develop several industry advisory groups, which focus on non-quota finfish and some species of shellfish, such as whelks, crabs and lobsters. The industry groups have grown significantly since their inaugural meetings, and host between 55 – 100 industry members. The last whelk meeting was held at Fishmongers’ Hall and was hailed a huge success.

As part of the collaborative FMP development process, Seafish and the industry advisory groups create engagement strategies, evidence statements, identify knowledge gaps, and draft FMP objectives to improve fisheries management. Industry members have also identified priorities for FMPs, including ensuring that the shellfish sector is appropriately engaged on marine spatial planning issues, promotion of trade opportunities, and means of addressing welfare issues.

At the beginning of 2022, the crab and whelk groups were successful in securing government funding to undertake two significant research projects focused on using artificial intelligence and camera systems to improve catch composition data for crab and lobster and a combined whelk data improvement project looking at whelk pot design to reduce bycatch, trialling artificial whelk baits, and gathering anecdotal data from whelk fishers to inform stock boundary definition.

We look forward to continuing our support for this initiative as the UK’s rewrites its fisheries management policy and legislation.  

The Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust once again sponsored the Sustainability Award at the national Fishing News Awards 2022. The Award rewards innovation in improving sustainability and environmental responsibility within the fishing industry.

The Sustainability Award saw an extremely competitive line-up of initiatives, all of whom are working hard to improve the marine environment and promote healthier fish and shellfish stocks. The prize was given to Ghost Fishing UK, which trains and recruits UK-based SCUBA divers to collect abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear. The shortlisted nominations included the Scottish Entanglement Alliance, who train fishers to untangle nets from moving marine mammals, the North-Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority for their scallop fishery management work, and the Clean Catch UK project, which promotes the uptake and trialling of selective fishing gear. Given the challenges faced over the past few years, the panel of industry experts were impressed with the level of impact achieved from all nominations. 

For the first time in the history of the Awards, two female fishers were recognised for the talent and commitment to the industry.  Ashley Mullenger, a whelk fisher from Norfolk and trustee of Fishing into the Future, won the highly contested, Under-10m Fisherman of the Year, whilst the Trainee Fisherman of the Year went to 17-year old, Isla Gale from the Isle of Man.

Isla told the BBC: “I’ve always said I wanted to be the first female skipper, but I’ve also always said I wanted to be a good skipper, which is what I stand by.”

Finalists in the Trainee Fisherman and Young Fisherman categories met up ahead of the awards evening, supported by FCFCT’s charitable partner, Fishing into the Future (FITF), and Sunderland Marine. FITF’s Executive Director, Emma Plotnek said, “We were delighted to spend time with the nominees, discussing how FITF can help them, and also simply enabling a dialogue between the finalists. We started what we thought would be a short presentation and discussion. Two hours later, we were still there!”