Seas of Plenty

Today, we tend not to think of the UK as a place that could ever boast a profusion of giant fish, dolphins and whales, but even as little as a century ago it was a very different place. The seas around our islands were home to a remarkable marine megafauna. UK waters are among the most productive in the world. Or at least they were before we reached our present state of extreme over-fishing. - Professor Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at York University

As part of our Marine Bill Campaign, The Wildlife Trusts are highlighting the massive loss of marine megafauna from our seas. The Wildlife Trusts’ campaign aims to show how vital it is that the Marine Bill (published in draft on 3 April) provides robust new laws for marine conservation – including the creation of highly protected marine reserves – if our seas are ever again to be a stronghold for the giants of the seas. The new campaign leaflet, Seas of Plenty sets out to show just how much our marine environment has changed - for the worse - in a short period of time. Download a pdf of the leaflet here.

Click on the diagram to follow the fortunes of four species over the past century

Clicking on this image will open a scrolling timeline in a new window. For a pdf version of this image click here.  

Bluefin tuna

UK record bluefin tuna caught in Scarborough in 1933. North sea anglers first became interested in bluefin tuna in 1911. A summer sport began and the official UK record, seen here with its captor, Lorenzo Mitchell-Henry (left) weighed 386kg (851lb). Overfishing of herring hastened the decline of this 45mph, warm-blooded predator off Yorkshire.

Basking shark

Scottish shark hunt 1770: Thousands of basking sharks once visited the western shores of Britain every summer to feast on plankton. From at least the 18th century they were hunted with harpoons for their oil, like this hunt from the Isle of Arran in 1770. However, it was industrial scale killing by Norwegian and Scottish boats in the mid-20th century that precipitated the decline that led to the present threatened status of this fish.

Blue shark

Blue shark: Before the onset of 20th century industrial fishing, blue sharks were plentiful around Britain in the summer months. This illustration from an 1899 book was captioned, a species which “often ruins man’s nets and hooks, and defies his influence”.

Skate

Anglers with skate at Hove in Sussex: Common and long-nosed skate were once extremely common around the UK, and reached enormous sizes of up to 2.7 metres long and 200kg (8ft 9in and over 400lb). For hundreds of years they were a staple food of the poor. The common skate is now extinct from much of its former range around Britain due to bottom trawling.

Herring

Herring catch at Lowestoft: East Anglia was once the base for one of the world’s great herring fisheries. Shoals of ‘forage’ fish like herring and pilchard attracted whales, porpoises, sharks, tunny and many other predators. The Anglian herring population collapsed in the 1950s due to overfishing and has never recovered.

Halibut

Halibut at Aberdeen fish market ca 1910. Tonnes of wild halibut landed from UK waters have plummeted from over 10,000 per year at the start of the Twentieth century to under 1,000 now.

Bluefin tuna



Bluefin tuna: A fine catch of bluefin tuna taken by sport fishers off the coast at Scarborough in 1933. This species has declined by at least 98% from overfishing since its heyday and no longer occurs in the North Sea.

Porpoises

Pod of Porpoises off the coast of England: Porpoises were once abundant around the shores of Britain and regularly seen in groups of hundreds of animals pursuing prey along open coasts, into bays and harbours and even up rivers.

For more historic images of the marine environment click here.

The Unnatural History of the Sea - Professor Callum Roberts' website.

Find out more about The Wildlife Trusts campaign for Highly Protected Marine Reserves to protect marine wildlife in UK waters. Download the report Marine Reserves – TLC for our seas and sea life.

Image credit
Bluefin tuna image by kind permission of Mark Mitchell-Henry
Following images provided by Professor Callum Roberts