Proposed Northern Shelf Hake Fisheries Management Plan

Background

Stock

Hake are large oceanic fish that are widely distributed throughout the north-east Atlantic, ranging from Norway and Iceland down to Morocco and into the Mediterranean Sea. There are indications of some genetic variation across this range, and the current relevant ICES assessment and advice for Northern Shelf hake covers that part of the stock north of the border between France and Spain. The distribution of Northern Shelf hake is changing through time, which is possibly driven by climate change, and in recent years hake have become much more prevalent in the northern North Sea. Some studies have concluded that the recent warming trend in the north-east Atlantic has been beneficial for hake recruitment and growth.

Hake live at a wide range of depths, from inshore waters down to around 370 m, and spawning time is dependent on location (coming later in the year for more northerly stocks). Most spawning occurs along the shelf edge, from north of the Bay of Biscay to the south-west of Ireland. Adult hake are piscivorous (fish-eating), and are considered to be top predators for small pelagic fish in particular (blue whiting, herring, sprat and horse mackerel).

Hake are generally caught using benthic (seabed) trawls, gillnets and longlines. Fishing types can vary between countries, and between fishing area. The figures within this FMP primarily focus on UK fishing vessels, as these are the vessels for which we have comprehensive data. This is explained further in the fishery section below.

Catches of hake reached an historical peak in 2016 and have since declined following a period of reduced recruitment, although catches are still above the long-term average. Estimated fishing mortality has been below FMSY since the late 2010s, and spawning stock biomass (SSB) has been well above the MSY Btrigger point during the same period (although with a decline since 2016, commensurate with falling catches).

Location

The biological stock is found in the North Sea and West Coast of Scotland (ICES areas 4 and 6) along with areas 3.a, 7 and 8. For management purposes, there are two separate TAC areas, denoted by ICES codes HKE/2AC4-C and HKE/571214. HKE/2AC4-C includes the UK waters of area 2.a, while HKE/571214 includes UK and international waters of areas 5.b, 7, 12 and 14. It is worth noting that a regulation within the annual UK-EU TAC agreement permits up to 100% of the western hake TAC to be converted into the North Sea TAC (a ‘stock transfer’).

The below figures show the location of the ICES areas, along with known distribution of the hake stock, according to the latest available survey data.

Most hake caught in UK waters is caught in ICES area 4 (56%), while around 21% is caught in ICES area 6, and 24% is ICES area 7.a, 7.d-h and 7.j. There is some emerging information suggesting that the distribution of the Northern hake stock is now changing following a contraction of the biomass.

Fishery

Fishing for hake in UK waters takes place as part of both a mixed fishery (meaning that hake is caught alongside other whitefish stocks, often as a bycatch of the trawl fishery rather than a targeted species) and a targeted fishery (which generally uses longlines or gillnets). There are many shared characteristics between whitefish stocks, and similarities in where and how they are fished. When considering management action for Northern Shelf hake as part of this FMP, and in wider management considerations such as the setting of fishing opportunities, fisheries policy authorities consider the role of hake in the wider marine ecosystem. Many of the issues that are considered as part of this FMP are applicable across demersal whitefish fisheries, and therefore the actions required are often not specific to one particular stock or fishery.

It is important to note that the figures provided in this section are based on the latest available data which is from 2022. Whilst this section provides a snapshot of the fishery at this time, it will not reflect any more recent changes in the fishery.

Between 2019 and 2022, 95% of hake caught in UK waters was caught by demersal-targeted fisheries, 4% was caught by mixed fisheries and 1% was caught by the shellfish fleet.

Fishing vessels often move between sea areas to fish, particularly where particular stocks of fish such as hake are mobile between those areas. Decisions on where and when to fish usually take into account levels of available quota and access permissions.

Analysis was undertaken of the UK fishing fleet catching the Northern Shelf hake in UK waters. Between 2015 and 2022, 56% of hake was caught in ICES area 4 (predominantly 4.a). The remaining 44% was split relatively evenly between area 6 (predominantly 6.a) and area 7 (varying differences between sub-sectors). Between 2015 and 2021, the UK fleet landed 11% of hake caught in ICES areas 4, 6 and 7, as well as subareas 8.a-b, 8.d, and 3.a, which includes non-UK waters. When excluding divisions 8 and 3, it is estimated that the UK fleet landed 15% of hake caught in UK waters, with most remaining landings coming from the EU fleet. Key nations in the EU fleet are France and Spain.

Of the landings caught by the UK fleet in 2022, English vessels accounted for 37% of the catch and caught most of their catch in area 7. Scottish vessels accounted for 60% of the catch, with most of their landings coming from areas 4 and 6. The Northern Irish fleet caught around 2%, whilst the Welsh fleet caught less than 0.1% . UK management data was used for analysis of the UK fleet. ICES stock report data was used for analysis of the non-UK Fleet as we do not hold comprehensive data in relation to hake fishing efforts for the non-UK fleet, as highlighted under the ‘Stock’ section above.

Analysis of UK fisheries data shows that, between 2015 and 2022, trawls accounted for around 45% of all hake caught; hooks and lines accounted for ~35% of the catch and gill and seine nets shared the rest. There appears to be a long-term trend away from hooks and lines towards gill and seine nets, although hooks and lines remain a popular choice of gear type used.

Further analysis of the UK fisheries data using Seafish fleet segmentation^[5] shows that the longline and the North Sea and West of Scotland demersal pair trawl seine fleets were the two major fleets fishing for hake between 2015 and 2022, accounting for 37% and 24% of the total hake caught in UK waters, respectively. Gill netters represented the next major fleet, accounting for 14% of the hake catch during the same period, whilst the North Sea and West of Scotland demersal over 24m fleet accounted for just over 10% of the catch.

The average price per tonne of hake was consistently between £2,150 and £2,350 between 2015 and 2020. There has been a sustained increase in the price per tonne of hake since 2021, with the price per tonne reaching £2,800 in 2022. However, landed values have been generally on the decline, as tonnage landed fell from ~14,000t in 2017 to ~6,000t in 2021. 2022 saw an increase in landed value up to ~ £23 million, due to both an increase in price per tonne as well as the tonnage of hake landed.

The majority of hake caught between 2015 and 2021 by the UK fleet is landed into the UK (89%), with 11% being landed outwith the UK. The largest foreign destination for landings is the Republic of Ireland, with around 5% of the UK fleet tonnage landed there. The main landing districts for hake in the UK were in the North and North East of Scotland (46%), with other notable portions of hake landed into the West of Scotland (23%) and South Western England (14%). Northern Shelf hake is a particularly notable fishery for the port of Lochinver, for which hake represented over 50% of the ports landed value, despite only representing an 8% share of hake’s UK-wide landed value. Newlyn in South West England has the highest landings by value of any port in the UK. In 2023 some 1,767t of hake with a market value of £6.8m was landed into Newlyn in South West England. It represented some 28% of the value of all demersal landings into Newlyn. Landings of hake with a value of under £300,000 were made into a further English 27 ports. Hake is equally important for many ports in Scotland with some 5,452t with a value of just over £23m landed into Scotland in 2023. Five Scottish ports had landings of hake greater than £1m (Scrabster, Peterhead, Lochinver, Ullapool and Lerwick). Total landings of hake into Scotland in 2023 were 5,452t which a value of just over £23m.

The Northern Shelf hake is the most important species for longline fisheries operating in UK waters, representing two thirds of their tonnage and landed value caught between 2015 and 2022. Gill netters also relied on hake for ~30% of the fleet’s landed value for the same period. These two fleets are important employers within the fishing industry, accounting for 238 and 271 full time equivalent (FTE) in 2022^[6], which, in turn, makes hake an important species for sustaining these fleets given their reliance on the species. For the North Sea and West of Scotland demersal pair trawl seine fleet, hake represented just over 10% of the fleet’s landed value, and it did not represent a notable species for other fleets.