North Sea - Exploitation

Responsibilities for fisheries management in the North Sea lies both with neighbouring countries through Economic Exclusion Zones (EEZ’s) and also the European Economic Commission (EEC) by setting Total Allowable Catches (TAC’s) for countries, under the guidelines of the Common Fisheries Policy. Scientific advice on the state of the stocks and recommended TAC’s is undertaken by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES).

Denmark, UK, Netherlands and Norway are the major fishing nations although Germany, Belgium and France all have vessels that operate in the North Sea (AER 2005 and Walday and Kroglund 2006). The main fisheries can be split into demersal, pelagic and industrial. Demersal fisheries target roundfish species such as cod (Gadus morhua), haddock (Gadus aeglefinus) and whiting (Gadus merlangus) in addition to flatfish species such as plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), sole (Solea solea) and a fishery for saithe (Pollachius virens). Pelagic fisheries target herring (Clupea harenguss) and mackerel (Scomber scomber) and the industrial fisheries target sandeel (Ammodytes Spp), Norway pout (Trisopterus esmarkii) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus), which are used to produce fishmeal and oil. There are also important crustacean fisheries for nephrops (Nephrops norvegicus), shrimp (Panadalus borealis) and brown shrimp (Crangon crangon).

The North Sea supplies approximately two million tonnes of fish each year from its three main sectors (Figure 5). Industrial fisheries provide roughly one million tonnes of this, which is processed into fishmeal and fish oil, not for human consumption. The pelagic fishery for herring and mackerel is the next biggest proportion (approx 700,000 tonnes), which is used for human consumption. The demersal stocks accounts for approximately 300,000 tonnes but has been decreasing continuously since the early 1980s. Total catches of North Sea fish since 1896 set in context the scale and trends of catches over the last few decades (Figure 6)