A lecture by Dr Rick Leah, Jones Building, University of Liverpool

In the lecture on Marine Fisheries, you were asked a series of questions to explore how YOU personally are connected with the over exploitation of marine resources. 

The outcome of the questions was unknown at the time of asking (it was instant research!) but from the results it is possible to conclude :

1. Many Liverpool students have contributed to the over-fishing problem faced in the North Sea by the Cod by their love of fish and chips!
2. Many of you have been 'persuaded' by large supermarket chains to eat types of fish that you did not realise you were doing
3. The British diet is being supplemented with large amounts of fish caught in different parts of the world

The questions also illustrated the far reaching nature of the connections with fisheries for many unusual fish from all over the planet. (New for 2007 - your responses were almost identical to your predecessors in 2006!)

The Powerpoint file used in the lecture is available on VITAL. Overheads : a copy some of the graphs and diagrams used in the lecture is available here : (This is a Word File and will download or open depending on your browser settings - ca 1mb in size) 

This is one subject where the internet is very good for keeping up to date - use search facilities such as the Guardian (mentioned in more detail below) or on the New Scientist site to keep abreast of new developments - the world oceans are being over-fished literally as you study!.

A very informative web site on topics associated with overfishing is being maintained by the Guardian at: www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/fish
The complete archive of Guardian Articles on overfishing is available here

The Cod (Gadus morhua) has been a very important fish in Britain (and much of Europe) and the North East Atlantic and Irish Sea are very important and productive areas for cod. They are heavily overfished although politicians remain unable to agree to managing the stocks in a sustainable way. There is very good explanation of the problem with Cod by Dr Robin Cook from Aberdeen:
Cod stocks in trouble and you can also check out on the most recent assessment of the state of our local fisheries in UK Seas Assessment reports and review the Recovery plans for Atlantic Cod

Many people think of aquaculture as the way forward (such as farming salmon) but since most fish raised in aquaculture are carnivorous, large quantities of fish have to be caught to feed the growing salmon. The conversion efficiency can be as poor as 10:1 and even at best might be only 3:1. Since the wild salmon is in decline throughout its range because of many problems, some caused by aquaculture itself, there does not seem to be a sustainable option here. A detailed account of the problems faced by salmon is available for the Atlantic Salmon from an ICES report and lots of info on the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) website

A large (>6MB pdf) report on the state of all EU fisheries is available at ICES Status Report on European Seas although the essence of it is reviewed in a much shorter Press Release Oct 2006. The latest information on the state of cod stocks in the North Sea is given in another Press Release Oct 2007

Click here to return to the BIOL202 Homepage

This page is maintained by an 'amateur webmaster': Dr Rick Leah, Jones Building, School of Biological Sciences
Any feed back or comment would be welcome, but please be gentle! 
NB: The HTML has not yet been 'verified' - apologies to any disabled users - I will try to attend to this during this academic year