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British Fishing Ban Revives Sea Life

Posted on: Friday, 18 July 2008, 14:02 CDT

British scientists report that the area around Lundy Island off the coast of Devon has experienced a significant revival in its sea life due to five years without fishing.  

Fishing is completely prohibited on the island’s eastern coast, and is Britain’s only “no-take” zone. 

Conservationists would like to see more such protected areas, although the British government’s Marine Bill only commits to more nebulous “marine conservation zones”, leaving protection levels undefined.

Natural England and the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee established the Lundy zone five years ago.  The committee collaborates with local fisherman to administer fishing along the county's coasts.

Scientists at Natural England believe the no-take zone will provide a refuge where young lobsters can grow to maturity before migrating into areas where commercial fishing is allowed. Lobsters are now seven times more plentiful within the Lundy protected zone than outside.

"The main result we have seen is an increase in the number of large lobsters in the no-take zone compared to areas where fishing is on-going,"  Miles Hoskin, the marine biologist selected by Natural England to lead the research, told BBC News.

"In recent years we've also found an increase in the number of small lobsters within the zone and adjacent to the zone," he said.

"In the next year or two they're all going to be lobsters that fishermen can catch."

The team surveyed five sites:  two in commercially fished areas around Lundy, one in the no-take zone and two reference sites located in South Wales and on the north coast of Devon.

When surveying, the scientists lay and retrieve strings of commercial lobster pots, then count and sex the animals inside.

The approximate doubling of young lobsters has not been observed at the two distant reference sites, indicating that it is a consequence of the no-take zone.

Scientists are now tagging the lobsters they catch, and encouraging fisherman to report catches of the tagged animals to show the migration distance out of the no-take zones.

Typically, fishermen are cautious about no-take zones, which is one reason why the government opted for a more flexible "marine conservation zone" concept in its draft Marine Bill.

"It's difficult to say whether it's helped us - we didn't used to fish in there much anyway, except close to shore, but it was always good for lobsters," John Barbeary, who works a lobster and whelk boat out of Ilfracombe, told BBC News.

"When we were asked about it we were all for it... (but) we couldn't afford to have the zone made any bigger because it would completely ruin our business, and I think you'd find that with a lot of fishermen around the country - it would make it totally uneconomic."

However, Devon Sea Fisheries representative Sarah Clark said the organization believes the zone is good for the industry.

"Having a larger brood stock especially of females within the no-take zone will obviously produce more juveniles," she told BBC News.

"We're tagging them to see if they're moving out - if they are, they'll be moving out of the no-take zone into the area that's being fished, and that can only help with the fishery, and help fishermen too."

Natural England's original intent was not to help fisherman, but to return a miniscule amount, 0.002%, of Britain’s seas to the state they were in before the existence of modern fishing.

"The site wasn't only set up to protect lobsters - it's to protect the whole environment," Chris Davis, the agency's senior specialist in marine policy, told BBC News.

"It's about protecting the fish and the sponges and the coral that's here as well, and it's doing a good job, though it's a bit difficult to say on some of the species because they don't reach maturity for 30 or 40 years."

One of the consequences of nature protection may be a spike in the tourist trade. Indeed, Lundy has experienced an increase in the numbers of divers visiting the area in recent years.

However, the fishermen are likely to be highly influential in the determining how many of the new marine conservation zones receive full protection. Similarly, the nascent renewables industry will also wield significant influence, given the area’s potential for generating electricity through tidal and wave technologies and offshore wind turbines.

But the protection zones are still several years away from being proposed.

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On the Net:

• Natural England
• Lundy Island
• Defra - Marine Bill
• Devon Sea Fisheries Committee

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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