Title: Natural Capital Scenario Analysis for the North Sea Sandeels Fishery
Client: Natural England
Year: 2021-2022
Country/Region: UK
eftec team: Ian Dickie, Natalya Kharadi, Guillermo Garcia
Sandeels, pictured above in the mouth of a puffin, are small fish described as a ‘cornerstone of the Scottish marine ecosystem’. Sandeels sit towards the bottom of the food chain, so changes in their numbers can have far reaching implications across the marine ecosystem. Our project found that reducing sandeel fishing by half increases stocks of sandeels and other marine animals by 6%, while if fishing is halted this increase could be as high as 27%.
The report contributed to the government's decision to prevent any fishing of the UK’s Sandeel quota in the North Sea in 2022, 2023, and 2024. This decision, and the work done by eftec and others to support it, received a 2024 Ocean Award from the Blue Marine Foundation.
About the Work
In 2021 we produced a natural capital account of the industrial sandeel fishery in the North Sea (ICES Subarea IV region) with ABPmer. We also modelled the impacts of two fisheries management scenarios: 50% reduction in sandeel fishery, and closure of the fishery. The project was commissioned by Natural England, funded through Defra’s Marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (mNCEA) programme.
The natural capital account helps integrate the dynamic biological and fisheries data from the Ecopath with Ecosim model into economic decision-making for well-informed resource management decisions. With modelling support from CEFAS, outputs from the Ecopath with Ecosim model suggest that reducing or closing the sandeel fishery would increase the stocks of sandeels, fish, mammal populations and seabirds that feed on sandeels in the ecosystem. For the reduced scenario this increase could be 6%, whereas for the closure scenario it could be as high as 27%.
By reversing the practice of ‘fishing down the food chain’, we find that the value of landings of fish does not decline: in fact, it slightly increases. This is due to catches being of higher average value per tonne, partially because stocks of predatory fish increase as they feed on higher numbers of sandeels.
For more detail and to find our recommendations and future research, browse the executive summary or read the full report here.