1.1 Deeper and deeper

The relentless global search for new natural resources is now shifting modern industrialised societies to more marginal environments. During the next decade this unprecedented threat from human activities will focus more and more on the exploitation of the deep ocean. These trends are particularly apparent in the deepwaters to the west of the British Isles, where both the oil and fishing industries have moved into the area known as the Atlantic Frontier. These same industries in many other part of the world are now looking for new frontiers to exploit in deeper and deeper waters (Norse 1993; Hopper 1995; FNI 1995).

Up until this decade, there has been limited amount of fishing effort on deepwater fish in the Atlantic Frontier. This effort has been directed at only a few ‘commercially marketable’ species such as the roundnose grenadier, blue ling, orange roughy, black scabbard fish, Greenland halibut, deepwater redfish and various monkfish (FAO 1995; Hopper 1995). However, new deepwater boats are being commissioned to exploit the ‘non-quota’ deepwater species at depths of around 500 to 2,000 metres. These boats are known to the industry as ‘rule beaters, and are seen as having a potential transfer fishing effort away from over-exploited traditional fish species. As a result, depletion of deepwater species has taken place long before scientific knowledge is available, or in some cases becomes commercially accessible (Hopper 1995; ICES 1995a; Vincent 1995). Fisheries managers and politicians seem to be turning a blind eye to these fisheries.

Experience in other parts of the world has shown that deepwater fisheries can develop rapidly and that the resources which they exploit may be especially vulnerable (FAO 1995). The experience from New Zealand and Australia, where the commercial fisheries for orange roughy have been alarmingly depleted, cannot be ignored (Hopper 1995). A UN Food And Agriculture report (FAO) report summarised the orange roughy fisheries to date in “Orange Roughy: a sustainable fishery from 100 year old fish?” The orange roughy may live as long as 149 years and only becomes sexually mature between 20-35 years of age (Fenton et al. 1991), yet has probably the lowest natural mortality rates of all the commercially fished species (pers. comm. Nigel Merrett 1997; Angel 1997).

Given the experience in New Zealand and Australia, experts have been sounding the alarm bells to government regulators over the extent to which fisheries based on these vulnerable species can be exploited. By far the main message from scientific experts from Canada, Iceland, Faroes, Norway, and other countries is that these resources, about which very little biological information is currently available, are likely to be highly fragile.

1.2 ‘Ill-conceived’ solution

Professor Haedrich, a Canadian fish biologist, summed up the common view “that having any government encourage exploitation of slow-growing, late maturing deepwater fish as compensation for failing stocks on the shelf is a short-term, ill-conceived solution to a much greater problem.” (Haedrich 1996a). Another fisheries scientist remarked that “they are hardly the basis of a sustainable fishery, more like a non-renewable mineral resource.” (Kenchington 1996). Privately, both a MAFF scientist, and a Scottish Office scientist have referred to fishing for orange roughy as more like “mining”. Even the French fisheries department, IFREMIER, are thought to be considering a ‘gold-rush policy’ for deepwater fisheries .

In spite of more than a century of research in oceanography and marine biology, basic knowledge of the deep oceans is still lacking. However, there seems little doubt that the deep-sea marine ecosystem is very fragile and very old. All-out, ill considered exploitation by fishermen could cause rapid and irreparable damage (Grassle et al. 1986; Hopper 1995; Tumilty 1996b). Deepwater fish have long been insulated from any significant human impacts, but deepwater fisheries, species introductions, pollution and other ecosystem tamperings are changing this situation rapidly (Haedrich 1996b).

Can these remarkable, enduring and well-adapted species and assemblages withstand continued fishing pressure or should we protect what’s left before there is nothing left? Is the deepwater environment a dead-end for fisheries?

This report argues for a total ban on the deepwater fisheries which have developed to the west of the British Isles in recent years. The ban is required to protect what is left of these highly vulnerable species following the impact of a gold-rush policy to exploit them.