North Sea herring: longer term perspective on management science behind the boom, collapse and recovery of the North Sea herring fishery

Abstract

There is a long history of fisheries on North Sea herring and these fisheries have been socially and politically very important to Northern Europe for the last 400 years (Poulsen, 2008). The exploitation of North Sea herring is also seen as a classic example of the boom and bust consequences of industrialisation of the fleet and poor fisheries management, as characterised by the 1970s stock collapse caused by recruitment overfishing and management inaction when the productivity declined (Nichols, 2001, Dickey-Collas et al., 2010). The collapse in the fish stock and its economic consequences (5-year closure of the fishery and loss of markets) led to an awareness of the need for better fisheries management to ensure sustainable exploitation (Simmonds, 2007). In 1995 and 1996, fisheries scientists warned that the stock was being dangerously overexploited again and was “outside safe biological limits.” This led to a recommendation of within-year reductions in total allowable catch (TAC) of 50% (Simmonds, 2007). Perhaps as the previous collapse was well within living memory, both the managers and the industry worked with the shared objective to maintain sustainability of the fishery. This led to the first version of the EU-Norway North Sea herring management plan1 being initiated in 1997. The management plan was an agreement between Norway and the EU to limit catches following a pre-agreed harvest control rule (HCR). This was one of the first applications of HCRs in the EU/Norway arena. Since then the plan has been revised in 2004, 2008 and 2014. Each revision involved fresh evaluations and has kept the core objective, namely to keep spawning stock biomass (SSB) above 800,000 tonnes, but each revision has reflected a new set priorities which developed in response to changes in fisheries management, the quality of the assessment and changes to the biological productivity of North Sea herring. This series of revisions is documented in this chapter and the 2014 revision is described in more detail. As the management of North Sea herring is dynamic and iterative, it is very likely that as this chapter goes to press, the details on the current situation will be outdated and further developments will have occurred.