UK1 England and Wales Socio-economic Profile


1 United Kingdom England and Wales : UK1
1.1 Overview

The area defined as United Kingdom UK1 covers the whole of  both  England and Wales. At the end of 1997 the fleet was estimated to comprise of some 4,856 vessels with a total tonnage of 93,344 GRT.  The fishing vessels are distributed along the coastline with the largest proportion (37%  or 1,805 vessels)of the fleet located in the South West, the majority being in Devon and Cornwall. The major proportion of the fleet is comprised of vessels under 10 m in length (75%),  Poole in the South West has the greatest share of vessels under 10m (17.5%), whilst Grimsby  in the North East has the greatest proportion of vessels over 15m

Since 1992 there has been a 48% decline in vessel numbers

Total landings in 1996 into English and Welsh ports were 179,635 tonnes with a value of  
205,579,271 ECU,  in terms of volume landings were greatest in the ports of the North East and South West of England.  These include Hull. Grimsby, Brixham, Weymouth and Newlyn.

The demersal species account for the largest part of English and Welsh landings with 80,503 tonnes representing 44.8% of the  overall catch.  Shellfish make up 35.6 % of landing by volume, and pelagics make up the remaining 19.5 % by volume.

Since 1989 the volume of the demersal catch has fallen by 17% and the shellfish has increased by 6%.  The pelagic catch has increased over the same period although over this period these species actually  only contributed to a small proportion of the total landings in England and Wales.

In 1997 UK vessels landed 92% of the fish in the UK. This distribution of landings between national vessels and foreign vessels has not changed over the last decade.  Furthermore, the UK vessels contribute substantially to the landings in other EU countries ( mainly Denmark  and Germany) in that 25% of the total landings of UK vessels are landed abroad.

The main locations for processing in the UK are Humberside in North of England, and South/ Mid  Wales. Dermersal species account for 83% of the total volume (433,000 tonnes) processed in  England and Wales.   316,400 tonnes of demersal fish were processed in Humberside, of which 137,800 tonnes was cod.  In total Humberside processed 73% of the UK  total of raw material inputs to processing.

By contrast processing in the South/ Mid Wales is mainly involves shellfish.

Processors derive their raw material from a number of areas and whilst the majority is sourced from within the UK region, with increasing volumes of fish being landed abroad by UK vessels, regions such as Humberside are increasingly reliant on imported fish.

1.2 Coastal Fishing Employment

Employment within the UK capture fishing sector totals 9,896 (MAFF).   3,997 of the fishers are located in the 23 Fishery Dependent Areas identified by the consultants.  In terms of numbers of fishers Newlyn in Cornwall has the largest number of any FDA in the UK, with 670 FTEs.   The south coast FDAs of  Portsmouth, Brixham, Hastings, and Weymouth all have upwards of 200 fishers. The north sea coastline stretching from the Scottish border to the Wash contains 10 FDAs with numbers of fishing varying from 50 in the small port of Blyth  to nearly  200 in Hull.   There is no indication in the report as to the distribution of the  remaining 5,000 FTE fishers who are located outside of the selected 23 Fishery Dependent Areas

1.3 Processing Employment

The processing industry in England and Wales employs 9,598.  The largest processing centres, Grimsby and Hull are located around the Humber estuary leading into the North Sea. The processing sector employs 2300FTEs in Grimsby and 931 FTEs  in Hull.   In the FDA of North Shields, next to the Tyne river, there are 582 FTEs.

Processing figures and breakdown of the Survey of the UK Sea Fish Processing Industry  1995 indicate that there were a total of 11,990 people involved in the processing industry.

1.4 Marine Aquaculture

There are no published employment figures for marine aquaculture  (either finfish or shellfish).  However mussel production in  1997 England and Wales is 12,000 tonnes per annum and total marine aquaculture production is valued at 8,088,932 ECU.

1.5 Inland Fishing Aquaculture  

All inland fisheries are in private ownership and under the National Rivers Authority implementation of legislation.  In general sport and recreational fishing operate under a catch and release system.  There are no employment figures as to the number involved in inland fisheries, however  the data suggests that there are 850 FTE  employed in inland aquaculture,