Overfishing Threatens Deep-Sea Species

Some of Europe’s most spectacular deep-sea fish species are being wiped out by over-fishing, according to reports from fisheries scientists and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the conservation organization.

They warn that tough restrictions are needed to save exotic species such as the orange roughy, the black scabbard fish and the Portuguese shark.

Fisheries ministers from across Europe are preparing for a meeting of the European Union fisheries council yesterday which will decide how heavily stocks can be exploited.

One of the documents they will consider comes from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, which co- ordinates marine and fisheries research for 19 countries bordering the north Atlantic. It will warn that catches should be reduced until they can be shown to be sustainable.

David Griffith, the council’s general secretary, said: “Deep-sea fish are long-lived, slow-reproducing fish that can withstand only low levels of fishing.” In Britain these fish are mainly used in processed food.

Griffith is particularly concerned about deep-sea sharks such as the Portuguese and the leafscale gulper, whose populations have fallen by more than 80. He wants a ban on fishing them.

The origins of the crisis for deep-water species began 20 years ago with a rapid decline in the population of cod, hake, haddock and other shallower-water species.

This prompted fishermen to seek stocks further offshore in water up to 900 metres deep. Such species are popular with Spanish and Portuguese fishermen who use high-tech echo sounders to target the fish with great precision.

However, species that live in deep dark water have much longer and slower life cycles. Orange roughy, for example, take 25 years to mature, can live for 150 years but produce relatively few young.

A few years of heavy fishing have sent populations plummeting. Conservationists say that the techniques used to catch such fish are also highly destructive and wasteful.

A WWF study has criticized the fisheries around Britain as among the worst, with Spanish boats sailing under the British flag making extensive use of gill nets long strips of net that sit in the water killing everything that gets trapped in them.

Fishermen often leave such nets for weeks before recovering them, meaning that much of the catch will have rotted.

The report also warns that hundreds of kilometres of gill net are lost every year but continue to drift around the sea bed killing fish. The phenomenon is known as ghost-netting.

The chances of European ministers imposing restrictions based on the scientific advice are low. Earlier this month Ben Bradshaw, the fisheries minister, told the Commons that total landings of fish from British vessels rose last year to a value of 550 million pounds (US$957 million). He praised his officials for blocking EU proposals to cut the value of British fish quotas.

In Brussels this week other fisheries ministers will take a similar approach, trying to maximize their country’s quotas.