Ocean conservation charity Blue Marine Foundation has gone to court to challenge the UK government for setting fishing opportunities higher than scientific advice.
The charity’s leading counsel, David Wolfe KC, will argue this week that the government’s unsustainable management of fish stocks is an irresponsible use of national assets and against the interests of the majority of fishers as they will run out of fish to catch.
It will point to evidence that decades of prioritising “short-term commercial considerations over responsible management” has led to the depletion of key species such as mackerel, Celtic Sea cod, Channel pollock and Irish Sea whiting.
Blue Marine says the government is “not entitled to override sustainability concerns based on un-evidenced claims that this is balanced decision-making”.
The case challenges the December 2023 determination of fishing quotas for the year 2024 by the previous government, which resulted in quota for 54% of fish stocks being allocated above scientific advice.
The court has already been told, in a correspondence running to more than 700 pages, that the government’s approach – namely that UK-based fishing boats should be allowed to catch as much as allowed by international negotiations regardless of the consequences – is unlawful. No consideration had been given to the objectives of the post-Brexit Fisheries Act 2020 and it lacked the legally required transparency, according to the correspondence.
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The argument is likely to focus on whether it is lawful for the secretary of state for the environment not to be given or consider advice on how the levels of quota negotiated internationally fitted with UK law and policy, including being based on appropriate socioeconomic considerations and other factors.
“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 relies on them including marine ecosystems and the fishing industry itself,” said Charles Clover, co-founder of Blue Marine.
“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 measures to conserve the fish population that is overfished,” Clover added. ”That is inexorably wiping out wild fish species in our waters. We cannot believe that is consistent with the law.”
The case is supported by inshore fishers including Martin Yorwarth, who said the case was the “last chance for gaining equality for the inshore fishing fleet”.
He added that he hoped there would be a “reset if the case is won, with coastal fishing communities getting treated more fairly”.
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