Guidance Commercial fishery in the North Sea

Index section Commercial fishery in the North Sea

• Cod, herring, plaice and sole in the North Sea
• Proportion of large fish and fishing intensity
• The common scoter and spisula fishing
• Rays and fishing
• The harbour porpoise: fishing and pesticides
• Animals of the floor of the North Sea, and beam trawling

Introduction

The North Sea is one of the world's most important fishing grounds, yielding benthic and pelagic fish, and shellfish. Some species have been overfished, but the herring is one of the species whose stocks have recovered and are currently favourable. Cod stocks, however, are so low that there is a danger that sufficient juveniles will not be produced. Generally, large fish of all species are becoming rarer.

Fishing is affecting other species too. The harvesting of the shellfish spisula from the North Sea is impacting on the occurrence of the common scoter. And fishing is probably responsible for the crash in numbers of rays and for the decline in numbers of harbour porpoise.

Beam trawling for benthic flatfishes is causing high mortality in benthic fauna and a shift in their age composition.

However, birds profit from the large amounts of fish waste dumped at sea by trawlers.