Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mrs. Harking.

Today's lesson is Sustainable fishing taken from the unit, Natural resources: Can Earth meet our needs.

We will explore how game-changing inventions and the cod wars have changed the sustainability of fishing globally.

I hope you enjoy the lesson today.

Let's go.

Our outcome today is to explain different strategies to improve the sustainability of fishing and how the law plays a role in this.

Some keywords that are useful to know before today's lesson are sustainable, bycatch and trawler.

Sustainable, means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

You might have heard this term in relation to society, the environment and the economy.

And all of those elements are really important, when we're thing about doing something sustainably.

Bycatch is marine animals or sea creatures that are unintentionally caught while fishing for a different species.

So for example, if you're fishing for tuna and you accidentally catch a dolphin, the dolphin would be the bycatch.

Trawler is a type of fishing boat which catches fish by dragging a large net through the water.

So we're going to use these words during the lesson and I'll be expecting you to know these tab.

So if you would like to pause the video and note these down now, that's fine.

Well done, everyone.

Let's move on.

Our lesson today is in two parts.

First of all, strategies used to fish sustainably and then fishing and the law.

First of all, we'll look at strategies used to fish sustainably.

Izzy says, "In 2018, nearly 90% of the world's marine, that means sea, fish stocks were fully exploited, overexploited or depleted.

There must be a way to improve this situation." Can you think of ideas that might help? Let's see how your ideas compare to those that are being used in the fishing industry at the moment.

So using specialist fishing equipment can reduce bycatch.

For example: turtle excluder devices, also called TEDs, which I quite like, biodegradable fishing lines and also circle hooks.

We'll take each of these and just explain them in a little bit more detail.

Firstly, these turtle excluder devices, also named TEDs, are fitted into trawler nets to allow turtles and other larger bycatch to escape whilst trapping smaller target species.

They can be extremely effective.

Remember we said that trawlers are boats that drag large nets behind them to catch fish.

So this is a small section of that large nets and we can see that the turtle is able to escape through the turtle excluder device.

It's worth noting it's not just turtles that can benefit from these TEDs.

There's also other large species that can benefit.

Sometimes in the fishing industry, fishers fish for fish using trawl nets and sometimes they use line fishing.

Line fishing is when there is line, you can see the fishing line wrapped around the bird here, with a hook on the end that catches the fish.

There are biodegradable fishing lines are way better than the traditional ones and that's because they break down naturally over time if the line is lost in the water.

So lines do get lost in the water.

This reduces the risk of wildlife being harmed and plastic pollution as well as ghost fishing, which is a thing, as the line continues to catch fish after it has been lost.

Circle hooks are our last invention.

So circle hooks have been designed to hook fish in the mouth rather than the gut.

This reduces injury to bycatch, meaning it's more likely to be able to be released back into the sea alive.

You can see on the left hand side the difference in shape between the two hooks.

Time for a check for understanding now.

Select the correct statements.

Is it A: turtle excluder devices, TEDs, are only effective for turtles, B: biodegradable fishing line reduces ghost fishing, or C: circle hooks hook fish in the guts rather than in the mouth? There is only one correct statement.

Well done.

Yes, it's B, biodegradable fishing line reduces ghost fishing.

So the other two are incorrect because the TEDs are not only effective for turtles, they're also effective for other large marine species.

And then C, the circle hook fish in the mouth, not the gut, it's the mouth.

So these are incorrect.

Consumer decisions also play a role.

This means people who are buying the fish, for example, this person at market here.

Information needs to be provided to consumers that eating fish from well-managed fisheries helps prevent overfishing, protects marine biodiversity and ensures fish populations remain healthy for future generations.

There's labelling on packaging which allows people to make that decision.

Celebrity chefs have promoted cooking with lesser known sustainable fish species to reduce pressure on the popular fish species, such as cod and tuna.

So here's an example of a recipe that actually uses a less well known species that's pretty sustainable: roasted dab.

The method is to drizzle the dab, which is a fish with olive oil and lemon juice and scatter the garlic, tomatoes and herbs, season well and roast.

This is what the meal would look like on the left hand side.

So it'd be interesting to know whether you've actually heard of dab before or have eaten that.

So it would be more sustainable if people ate more of these lesser known species such as dab that can be sourced sustainably.

Time for a check for understanding now.

True or false? Consumer decisions don't make a difference to global fish populations.

It's false.

Why? So eating fish from well-managed fisheries helps prevent overfishing, protects marine biodiversity and ensures fish populations remain healthy for future generations.

Your task time now.

If you were to start a sustainable fishing business, what methods would you use and how are they sustainable? I've got some pictures on the slide here just to give you a reminder of the three strategies that we've discussed.

Feel free to pause the video now to give yourself time to do the task.

Well done, everyone.

Let's take a look at an answer.

So the question was, if you were to start a sustainable fishing business, what methods would you use and how are they sustainable? Your answer may have included: fitting turtle excluder devices or TEDs into trawler nets to allow turtles and other large bycatch to escape while trapping the smaller target species.

Using biodegradable fishing line, which breaks down naturally over time if the line is lost in the water.

This reduces the risk of wildlife being harmed, plastic pollution and ghost fishing as the line continues to catch fish.

Using circle hooks which hook the fish in the mouth rather than the guts, which will reduce injury to bycatch meaning it's more likely to be able to be released back into the sea alive.

How did you do? Well done.

Please take a look and if there's anything you would like to add or tweak in your answer, you can do that now.

Let's move on.

Now we're looking at the second part of our lesson, fishing and the law.

There are many laws and agreements globally that control who can catch fish and where, how many fish can be caught and when fishing can happen.

First of all, let's look at who can fish and where.

Exclusive economic zones are areas of sea up to 200 nautical miles from the country's coast with a nation controls fishing rights.

These are shown in red outlines on this map.

So you can see each country has a red line around it.

And these red lines show the extent, the furthest extent of the sea that's controlled by that country.

So the exclusive economic zone.

And that line in the majority is 200 nautical miles from the coastline of that country.

Couple of things to know here.

First of all, nautical miles, it sounds weird.

Why are we saying nautical and not just miles? Nautical is to do with anything to do with the oceans or the seas.

And actually nautical miles are slightly different to normal miles.

They're a little bit longer and it's because they are calculated in a slightly different way.

Then the second thing that we might need to have a little look at is there are some areas, Caribbean for example.

In the Caribbean, the exclusive economic zones don't seem so big and that's because you've got lots of nations that are quite close together.

So if you took 200 nautical miles from the coastline of one country, that would go all the way up to the coastline of another country, or even further potentially.

So actually in those situations, exclusive economic zone is worked out in a different way, and sometimes there are different scenarios based on specific agreements.

How many fish can be caught? So limits on the amount of fish that are allowed to be caught are set by governments and international organisations.

These limits are called quotas.

So a new word for us there, quotas.

And they prevent overfishing.

Fishers who exceed quotas may face hefty fines and even criminal charges.

So the laws that control when fishing can happen are seasonal closures, which temporarily ban fishing during breeding seasons to allow fish populations to recover.

So these will be arranged on individual basis in different locations.

If the fishing continued the whole way through the year, that would stop fish being able to breed.

And actually that would mean that no new fish appear and fish numbers would dwindle really quite fast.

So this is something that prevents that and maintains fish populations to some extent.

Time to check for understanding now.

Exclusive economic zones.

is it A: temporarily ban fishing during breeding seasons to allow fish populations to recover, B: limit the amount of fish that are allowed to be caught in that season, or C: are areas of sea up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast where the nation controls fishing rights? Well done, yes, it's C, exclusive economic zones are areas of sea up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast where the nation controls fishing rights.

What about this one? Limits on the amount of fish that are allowed to be caught are called.

Is it quotas, fish limits, or seasonal closures? Well done it's quotas.

Now we're gonna have a look at the tense tale of British fishing.

We're gonna go back to the 1870s and this is when steam trawlers revolutionised fishing.

You can see an image of a steam trawler on the right hand side.

They were allowing deeper and more distant catches.

This led to overfishing concerns and first calls for regulation, laws and agreements.

We can see on the timeline at the bottom that actually increasing regulation happened between 1900 and 1970, after the steam trawlers started to raise concerns.

in the 1950s to the 1970s, something called the cod wars occurred.

This is where Iceland gradually expend its control over fishing the waters around Iceland, to prevent overfishing and increase the fish available for Icelandic trawlers.

So we talked about exclusive economic zones before, didn't we? And that's going to come back in this section here.

So keep that in mind.

You can see where Iceland is located on the globe to the right there.

And Iceland initially only controlled the fishing in the waters quite close to the coastline.

But then the country expanded the area of sea which it controlled.

British trawlers had been fishing in these waters and they resisted, leading to heated standoffs, net cutting incidents and even ships deliberately ramming others at sea.

Though no shots fired, the cod wars marked a turning point in international maritime law.

It helped to establish wider exclusive economic zones globally.

Iceland have been trying to expand the waters around country that it controlled, and this is something that came out of this.

More control was given to countries over water further from the coastline.

As we've said before, up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.

And these are called exclusive economic zones.

So the cod wars just around Iceland between British and Icelandic fishers actually affected the global laws around exclusive economic zones.

This meant that more of the world's seas and oceans sought fishing regulations introduced.

Time for a check for understanding.

True or false? The cod wars contributed to wider exclusive economic zones being established globally, not just in Iceland.

Yes, that's true.

So the cod wars marked a turning point in international maritime law, helping to establish wider exclusive economic zones globally.

In 1970, the UK joined the European Economic Community.

This was later absorbed into the European Union, or the EU, in 1973.

Now you've probably heard of the EU.

It's a group of countries that work together in order to make trade, travel, et cetera easier because there's consistent rules across the countries.

One of the policies that the European Union had was the Common Fisheries Policy, which sets quotas to ensure sustainable fish stock management and allows all member countries shared access to fishing waters.

So that means that Spanish, French fishers could come to the UK and fish in our waters and the same in reverse.

So British fishers could go to any country in the EU and fish from those waters as well.

In 2013, public outrage helped push for reforms to the EU's Common Fisheries Policy, including banning the wasteful discarding bycatch.

This included celebrity campaigns from celebrity chefs to try and make the public far more aware of the situation.

True or false? There is no point in someone who doesn't fish or buy fish trying to change the fishing laws.

We've talked about this before, haven't we? In relation to consumers who do buy fish.

But what if somebody doesn't even buy fish? They don't fish themselves.

They don't even buy fish.

What do you think? It is false.

It's still false.

Can you tell why? Good.

So public outrage helped push for reforms to the EU's Common Fisheries Policy, including the banning of the wasteful discarding of bycatch.

So this is something that has happened.

Public outrage has had an impact.

So people campaigning can make a difference.

In 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU.

Many people in the UK fishing industry supported Brexit, hoping it would restore control over British waters and improve fishing opportunities.

The UK officially left the European Union on January 31st 2020.

British fishing regulation is broadly similar to the EU fishing regulation now.

The EU gave up 25% of fishing quotas in UK waters, but tensions remain over how fair this is.

It's worth noting that British fishers can fish in EU waters as well.

Again, there are limits to that.

Check for understanding.

True or false? Only British boats are allowed to fish in British waters.

False.

Can you tell me why? Yes, the UK gave up only 25% of fishing quotas in the UK waters between 2020 and 2025.

So EU fishing boat are still permitted to fish in British waters.

Time for our final task of the day.

Complete the sentences to name three types of law and agreement that control fishing.

First of all, we have: are areas of sea up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast, where the nation controls fishing rights.

Limits on the amount of fish that are allowed to be caught are called- they prevent overfishing.

temporarily ban fishing during breeding seasons to allow fish populations to recover.

Task two is to compare how sustainable fishing law in the 1870s was to today.

Pause the video now to give yourself time to do this.

Good luck, everyone.

Well done, everyone.

Let's go have a look at the answers.

So first of all, for task one, completing the sentences to name three types of law agreement that control fishing.

Firstly, you should have: Exclusive economic zones are areas of sea up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast, where the nation controls fishing rights.

Limits on the amount of fish that are allowed to be caught are called quotas.

They prevent overfishing.

Seasonal closures temporarily ban fishing during breeding seasons to allow fish populations to recover.

Did you get all three? Well done.

Do change anything that you need to.

Let's have a look at task two.

Compare how sustainable fishing law in the 1870s was to today.

In the 1870s, steam trawlers revolutionised fishing, allowing deeper and more distant catches.

This led to overfishing concerns and the first calls for regulation.

So key aspects to getting there are the term steam trawlers allowing for deeper and more distance.

Did you get deeper and distant catches? And then the term overfishing is really important there as well.

So four aspects to that, a couple of sentences.

Now, to compare, now, the exclusive economic zones mean more of the seas and oceans fishing is strictly regulated.

Quotas aim to limit overfishing and seasonal closures temporarily ban fishing during breeding seasons to allow fish populations to recover.

There are also laws to prevent bycatch waste.

Hopefully you've used the three key terms from the previous task.

Feel free to pause the video now if you need to edit your work.

We're now on to our summary.

Well done, everybody.

So, today we've covered the fact that using specialist fishing equipment can reduce bycatch.

Eating fish from well managed fisheries helps prevent overfishing, protects marine biodiversity, and ensures fish populations remain healthy for future generations.

Exclusive economic zones, quotas and seasonal closures are just some of the laws and agreements that improve fishing sustainability.

Historically, there have been many tensions surrounding British fishing, ultimately leading to more sustainable fishing laws.

Thank you for learning with me today.

I hope to see you next time.

Goodbye!.