Abstract
AbstractThe oceans’ fisheries contribute to human wellbeing by providing essential nutrients, employment, and income. Changes in fish distribution, due to climate change or stock expansion, jeopardize conservation objectives because fishers catch more than is allocated as quota. Quotas, or catch shares, should, therefore, correspond to the share of the fish stock biomass present within a country's Exclusive Economic Zone, a concept known as Zonal Attachment. Here, we assess the Zonal Attachment of transboundary fish stocks present in northern Europe, in the waters of the United Kingdom, the European Union (without the United Kingdom), and Norway. In 12 of 14 important fish stocks, estimates of Zonal Attachment to the United Kingdom were significantly higher than current quota allocations, explaining the country's substantial discard problem. With environmental change, and stock recovery under improved fisheries conservation, scientific evidence should be used not only to set catch limits, but also to re‐examine catch shares.
Highlights
The global contribution of fish to the provision of food and livelihood for human societies is recognized under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14: “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” (FAO, 2018)
Across all stocks there were large differences between the estimates of Zonal Attachment (Za) and the current quota shares (%TACa). We assumed that these differences were statistically significant when %TACa fell outside the confidence limits of the respective mean adult biomass spatial distribution
As a new independent coastal state, the United Kingdom would have the sovereign rights to exploit, conserve and manage the natural resources in its Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) (UNCLOS Article 56.1.a), it must exercise these rights with due regard to those of other states (UNCLOS Article 56.2)
Summary
The global contribution of fish to the provision of food and livelihood for human societies is recognized under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14: “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” (FAO, 2018). In northern Europe, catch limits, or Total Allowable Catches (TACs), are set annually for the major fish stocks which occur in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of European. Between EU member states, the TAC is apportioned into national quotas using a fixed allocation key under the “relative stability” (RS) concept, based, largely, on their catches from over 40 years ago. These catches reflected what nations’ fishing fleets were targeting at the time, rather than what resources were present: the United Kingdom, for example, had a large distant water fleet operating outside its current EEZ. Discarding was a particular problem in Europe, so the latest reform of the EU’s
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