Comparing statistics going back to the 1880s, British researchers found that four times more fish were landed in UK ports 100 years ago than today.
The study, published in the Nature Communications journal, also found that UK trawlers had to work 17 times as hard for the same catch as in the late 1880s, when the fleet went from sails to motor engines.
The researchers said overfishing was the main reason, explaining that “an extraordinary decline” in fish stocks and “profound” ecosystem changes were implied by the figures.
“Over a century of intensive trawl fishing has severely depleted UK seas of bottom living fish like halibut, turbot, haddock and plaice”, Simon Brockington, head of conservation at the Marine Conservation Society and one of the study’s authors, told BBC.
“It is vital that governments recognise the changes that have taken place (and) set stock protection and recovery targets that are reflective of the historical productivity of the sea”, he added.
While British fishermen often have blamed the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) for their sinking profits, the scientists behind the report say that their study shows that their problems are older than that: depletion of stocks stems from mismanagement and started well before the CFP was conceived.