UK: Cornish fishers call for ecosystem approach to pollack management

Cornish fishers call for ‘ecosystem approach’ to pollack management. The decision to cut the TAC for pollack in Area 7 by 87% is causing extreme distress in the fishing communities of South West England, states the Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation (CFPO). In a White Paper on how an ecosystem approach could inform more intelligent management of pollack, the CFPO says: “Small and medium sized fishing businesses are being forced to the wall – or into alternative fisheries where the increased fishing effort is likely to have adverse and unintended consequences. “The recovering bass fishery could now face a serious setback in recovery, the hake fishery is being forced to absorbed more effort and the crawfish fishery may now be forced into a boom-and-bust cycle. The TAC decision on Pollack, however, also raises wider issues. It has been known for some time, that draconian management decisions of this type, taken in isolation, with severe social and economic impacts, tend to drive ...