Participants at Fishing into the Future’s South West Fisheries Resource Education Programme
Two-day residential event delivered by the fishermen-led charity, Fishing into the Future, in collaboration with the PFSA
On 27th and 28th March 40 fishermen, scientists, policymakers, and seafood industry leaders came together at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Plymouth, for Fishing into the Future’s Fisheries Resource Education Programme (F-REP) event – returning to the south coast after the Southampton F-REP in 2023. In a new collaboration, the immersive residential event – the fourth in this series to be held by Fishing into the Future – was co-hosted by Plymouth Fishing and Seafood Association (PFSA).
F-REP events are designed to provide an environment where the full array of fishing industry stakeholders, who may rarely have a chance to interact at length, share expertise and strengthen working relationships. Attendees forged new relationships and gained insights from a packed two-day agenda that held a mix of presentations and group activities, including group dinners and F-REP’s Industry-Science Mixer, providing opportunities for all to learn, formally and informally, from each other and share knowledge and experience.
The event was opened by Ed Baker, CEO of the PFSA, who introduced the attendees and highlighted the challenging situation for local fishermen after the 2023 decision on a zero TAC for pollack. Bringing together fishermen experiencing such extreme hardship was new territory for Fishing into the Future, and the aim was to give everyone a chance to interact, share expertise and develop working relationships to improve mutual dialogue and effective ways of working together.
Ed Baker explained: ”Species such as pollack have cultural and economic significance for South West fishing communities, so the event was designed to help increase everyone’s understanding of what affects management decisions, and highlight fishermen’s involvement in data collection processes. Collaboration between all groups is seen as central to ensuring the future of fishing for the region.”
Highlighting the value of the discussions, Tim Lynn, a rod and line fisherman from south Devon, who attended the event remarked:
“We recognised that in order to build our case with policy makers and support the fishing industry in the South West, we need to share experiences and make connections. F-REP is a great place to start conversations, envisage how we can create change and work out how we can bring that about together.”
Sessions on Day One enabled participants to share knowledge of fisheries science, including presentations from Michel Kaiser, Chief Scientist at Heriot-Watt University; Ewen Bell, Principal Fisheries Advisor at Cefas, who introduced fisheries science and explored the process for stock assessments; Bryce Stewart, Senior Research Fellow at MBA and Associate Professor at Plymouth University who, along with Simon Thomas from the University of York shared how fishermen and scientists are working together to build the evidence base for Pollack in the Channel. Discussions centred on data collection and analysis, while practical activities applied this information.
Sessions on Day Two explored the bigger picture of fisheries management facilitated by Aisling Lannin, Head of Evidence and Evaluation at the MMO, with Isobel Johnston, Head of Fisheries Management, leading the sessions on Fisheries management and FMPs. Edd Hind-Ozan from Defra shared social science and data collection insights and conversations explored how to balance sustainability with the economic realities of fishing livelihoods. Participants valued the final sessions on seafood markets and representation, exploring where and how to engage to create a powerful regional and national voice for the industry.
The event was a day shorter than the usual F-REP agenda due to time constraints and industry availability, although the agenda did include some discussion on the bass and pollack FMP, there was clearly an appetite for more discussion to understand issues such as how regulation is managed across commercial and recreational sectors.
Adrian Bartlett, Fishing into the Future vice-chair and Director of PFSA commented “We all felt there needs to be more space for discussion, several fishermen in the room had lost their livelihoods, and we were only just scratching the surface to figure out what they need to move forward. Considering the difficult times we know that some in the room are experiencing, we will continue to support constructive discussions at our events. It was positive to hear from Defra that they want to listen and take on-board first-hand fishermen’s experience, and the Defra representative took questions back to colleagues and Fishing into the Future will support receiving the answers for an ongoing dialogue.”
Fishing into the Future aims to create opportunities for the fishing industry, scientists and government to build connections, learn and share knowledge with each other. The charity was founded and is led by fishermen and is for fishermen and continues to seek out routes to centre industry voices in science and decision making for effective fisheries co-management.
Day One: survey activity session (2)
Day One: survey activity session (1)
Day One : conversations during Fisheries Science and Data collection session with Cefas
Day Two: role play during the FMP working group session