Skip to main content
Home

Information for:

  • Alumni
  • Applicants
  • Current Students
  • Staff
  • Job Vacancies
  • Covid-19
  • Cymraeg
My country:

Main Menu

    • Study Options
      • Study Home
      • Why Study at Bangor?
      • Undergraduate Study
      • Postgraduate Taught Study
      • Postgraduate Research
      • Part-time Courses
      • January Start Courses
      • Degree Apprenticeships
      • Study Abroad
      • Work Experience
    • Study Advice
      • Apply
      • Already Applied?
      • Fees and Finances
      • Scholarships and Bursaries
      • Get Ready for University
    • Explore Bangor
      • Virtual Open Days and Visits
      • Virtual Student Experience

    Find a Course

    Order a Prospectus

    • Student Life
      • Student Life Home
      • Bangor and the Area
      • Social Life and Entertainment
      • Accommodation
      • Clubs and Societies
      • Sport
      • Virtual Student Experience
    • Your Experience at Bangor
      • Student Support
      • Skills and Employability
      • Study or Work Abroad
      • Fees and Finances

    Welcome 2021

    Student Profiles

    Student Videos and Vlogs

    • Choose Bangor
      • International Home
      • Why Bangor?
      • Location
      • Student Support
      • Contact Us
    • Apply
      • Entry Requirements
      • Tuition Fees and Scholarships
      • How to Apply
      • Already Applied
      • Study Abroad
      • Exchanges

    January Intake Courses

    Country Specific Information

    Bangor University International College

    Covid-19 Information

    • Research
      • Research Home
      • About Our Research
      • Research in our Academic Schools
      • Research Institutes and Centres
      • Research Portal
      • Research, Innovation and Impact Office (RIIO)
      • Energy
      • Research News
    • Postgraduate Study and Research Opportunities
      • Postgraduate Research Study
    • Events and Training Opportunities
      • Researcher Development
    • The University
      • About Us
      • Our Mission
      • Our Location
      • Academic Schools and Colleges
      • Services and Facilities
      • University Management and Governance
      • Vice Chancellor's Office
      • Working with Business
      • Working with the Community
      • Sustainability
      • Contact Us
    • Working for Us
      • Job Vacancies
    • University Management and Governance
      • Policies and Procedures
      • Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
    • University and the Community
      • Pontio
      • Sports Facilities
      • Conference Facilities
      • Places to Eat and Drink
      • Public Events
      • Widening Access
      • Services to Schools
    • Business Services
      • Business Services Home
    • Collaboration Hub
      • Collaboration Hub
      • Funding for Collaborative Research and Development (R&D) & Innovation
      • Business Facilities and Networks
      • Consultancy, Specialist Expertise and Knowledge
      • Commercialisation and Intellectual Property (IP)
      • Student Placements and Internships in Business & Enterprise
      • Training and Continuing Professional Development
      • Degree Apprenticeships
    • Conferencing and Business Dining
      • Conferencing Facilities
      • Business Dining
    • Contacts
      • Research, Innovation and Impact Office (RIIO)
      • Get In Touch
    • News
      • Current News
      • Research News
      • Student News
    • Events
      • Events

    • Study Options
      • Study Home
      • Why Study at Bangor?
      • Undergraduate Study
      • Postgraduate Taught Study
      • Postgraduate Research
      • Part-time Courses
      • January Start Courses
      • Degree Apprenticeships
      • Study Abroad
      • Work Experience
    • Study Advice
      • Apply
      • Already Applied?
      • Fees and Finances
      • Scholarships and Bursaries
      • Get Ready for University
    • Explore Bangor
      • Virtual Open Days and Visits
      • Virtual Student Experience

    Find a Course

    Order a Prospectus

    Covid-19 information

    • Student Life
      • Student Life Home
      • Bangor and the Area
      • Social Life and Entertainment
      • Accommodation
      • Clubs and Societies
      • Sport
      • Virtual Student Experience
    • Your Experience at Bangor
      • Student Support
      • Skills and Employability
      • Study or Work Abroad
      • Fees and Finances

    Welcome 2021

    Student Profiles

    Student Videos and Vlogs

    • Choose Bangor
      • International Home
      • Why Bangor?
      • Location
      • Student Support
      • Contact Us
    • Apply
      • Entry Requirements
      • Tuition Fees and Scholarships
      • How to Apply
      • Already Applied
      • Study Abroad
      • Exchanges

    January Intake Courses

    Country Specific Information

    Bangor University International College

    Covid-19 Information

    • Research
      • Research Home
      • About Our Research
      • Research in our Academic Schools
      • Research Institutes and Centres
      • Research Portal
      • Research, Innovation and Impact Office (RIIO)
      • Energy
      • Research News
    • Postgraduate Study and Research Opportunities
      • Postgraduate Research Study
    • Events and Training Opportunities
      • Researcher Development
    • The University
      • About Us
      • Our Mission
      • Our Location
      • Academic Schools and Colleges
      • Services and Facilities
      • University Management and Governance
      • Vice Chancellor’s Office
      • Working with Business
      • Working with the Community
      • Sustainability
      • Contact Us
    • Working for Us
      • Job Vacancies
    • University Management and Governance
      • Policies and Procedures
      • Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
    • University and the Community
      • Pontio
      • Sports Facilities
      • Conference Facilities
      • Places to Eat and Drink
      • Public Events
      • Widening Access
      • Services to Schools
    • Business Services
      • Business Services Home
    • Collaboration Hub
      • Collaboration Hub
      • Funding for Collaborative Research and Development (R&D) & Innovation
      • Business Facilities and Networks
      • Consultancy, Specialist Expertise and Knowledge
      • Commercialisation and Intellectual Property (IP)
      • Student Placements and Internships in Business & Enterprise
      • Training and Continuing Professional Development
      • Degree Apprenticeships
    • Conferencing and Business Dining
      • Conferencing Facilities
      • Business Dining
    • Contacts
      • Research, Innovation and Impact Office (RIIO)
      • Get In Touch
    • News
      • Current News
      • Research News
      • Student News
    • Events
      • Events

Information for:

  • Alumni
  • Applicants
  • Current Students
  • Staff
  • Job Vacancies
  • Covid-19
My country:

Search

Close

Breadcrumb

Share this page:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Cymraeg

Share this page:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Tens of thousands of dead fish just washed up on a Cornish beach – here's why

.This article by Michel Kaiser, Professor of Marine Conservation EcologySchool of Ocean Sciences was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

It must have been an incredibly morbid sight. Walkers on Marazion beach in Cornwall, at the south-western tip of mainland Britain, recently discovered tens of thousands of dead fish had been washed ashore overnight. One eyewitness told the Plymouth Herald the fish stretched “as far as the eye could see”.

A ‘Cornish ring netter’ catching sardines. Too many fish could make the boat unstable.

People speculated that pollution or natural predators such as dolphins or porpoises chasing the fish ashore may be to blame. But a much simpler explanation soon unfolded when the Cornish Sardine Management Association said that one of its vessels had been fishing close inshore and had had to release one of its catches for safety reasons.

Exactly what happened in this case remains unclear. But why would a ship ever need to dump fish for safety reasons? After all, catching lots of fish is surely the entire point. In any case, a European Union discard ban was first implemented in 2015 in order to stop this sort of thing.

The ban applies to the discarding of commercially valuable species for which an EU catch quota is set. The process is being phased in gradually and first on the list are “pelagic” fish like mackerel or herring that live in the midwater to close to the surface of the sea. These species of fish were chosen because they are seen as the least complicated fisheries that generally have few bycatch species associated with them.

Other more complex fisheries like those for cod, Norway lobsters (scampi) and Dover sole, that have a greater mix of species in their catches, will gradually come under the rules of the discard ban. By 2019, all quota species will be encompassed by the legislation.

TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight campaign successfully made it seem abhorrent to throw back perfectly edible fish simply because a vessel had no quota. Yet the Marazion stranding highlights the potential tension between well-intended legislation designed to reduce waste, and the issue of vessel safety and perhaps unintended consequences of management measures.

Most of the fish in question were reported to be sardines. At present, sardines are not a quota species and hence are exempt from the EU’s discards ban, which means there is probably no further cause for concern from a legal perspective.

But thousands of dead fish on a popular beach is a horrible sight, whatever the law says. It makes fishermen appear wasteful and creates a negative impression of the entire fishing industry.

So what went wrong?

Although fishing is a highly sophisticated business these days, it remains imperfect. Mistakes can happen, however experienced the skipper.

In sardine fishing, the net is typically laid around the shoal and tightened like a bag. The net is then retrieved slowly to the side of the vessel and the fish are brought aboard. In the case of the Marazion deaths, the vessels involved will be relatively small and have limited storage space so keeping everything balanced is crucial.

A ‘Cornish ring netter’ catching sardines. Too many fish could make the boat unstable.

If by sheer bad luck the net encircled a shoal of fish that was larger than the skipper realised, the boat is immediately put in a dangerous situation. A large catch on one side of the vessel will create an imbalance that will make it much more prone to capsizing when in rough seas. A fisherman died off the coast of nearby Devon in 2012 when his heavily-laden trawler capsized in similar circumstances.

Therefore if the catch is physically too large to retrieve, the vessel would have no choice other than to release the bottom of the net so that the catch falls away.

So surely the fish will swim off? Sadly not in this case. Many midwater species like sardines and mackerel are quite delicate and vulnerable to damage due to the high number of fish caught in the net. In this instance the sardines would most likely likely have been incapacitated as a result of being hauled to the side of the vessel, and when released from the net they would have been washed ashore with the action of tide and waves.

No one wants this to happen – not least the fishermen themselves. Improving the welfare of fish within nets is an emerging area of research, as reducing stress during capture improves the quality (and price) of the fish that end up in restaurants.

Sonar that can better estimate the size of schools of fish, along with other improvements to fishing technology, will gradually eliminate the sort of mistakes that led to the reported fish kill. Fishermen have every incentive to adopt these technologies as slipping fish is not only undesirable, but also a dangerous, even life-threatening situation.

The Conversation

Publication date: 22 December 2016

Home

About Us

Academic Schools and Colleges

  • College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
    • Home
    • Impact
      • How to prepare a draft Impact Case Study
      • Documentation from Meetings
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate
    • Research
      • Research with Impact
    • News
    • Opportunities
    • Policies
    • Health and Safety
    • Contacts
Home

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn

Bangor University

Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG, UK

+44 (0)1248 351151

marketing@bangor.ac.uk

Visit Us

Maps & Directions

Policy

  • Legal Compliance
  • Modern Slavery Act 2015 Statement
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy and Cookies
Map

Bangor University is a Registered Charity: No. 1141565

© 2020 Bangor University