The Marine Socio-Economics Project (MSEP)
is a project funded by The Tubney Charitable Trust and coordinated by NEF
(the new economics foundation) in partnership with the WWF, the MCS,
the RSPB, and The Wildlife Trusts. The project aims to build socio-economic
capacity and cooperation between NGOs and aid their engagement with all
sectors using the marine environment.
Recreational Sea Angling (RSA)
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Sea Angling 20121 is the widest study to ever have
been undertaken on sea angling in England. It set out
to find out how many people go sea angling in England,
how much they catch, how much they release, and the
economic and social value of sea angling.2
The report, Sea Angling 2012, was commissioned
by Defra and the Marine Management
Organisation (MMO) to aid decision-making
over sustainable development policies with
regard to all forms of sea fishing. The surveys,
conducted as part of the study, also helped
meet UK obligations under European law
to estimate recreational catches of several
species, including bass and cod. 12
The study reviewed existing evidence and
collected data from over 11,000 sea anglers
through surveys. The main findings:
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There are 884,000 sea anglers in England;
this compares to around 76,000 in Wales
and 125 000 in Scotland. They spend a total
of almost four million days fishing every year
(UK wide).
A Scottish government report from 2009
estimated 1.6 million days spent angling
(17 per individual).
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This supported 10 400 full-time-equivalent
(FTE) jobs and almost £360 million of gross
value added (GVA).
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Considering indirect and induced effects,
sea angling supported £2.1 billion of total
spending, provided a total of over 23,600
jobs, and added almost £980 million of GVA
to the UK economy.
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Estimates from Defra research at specific
case study sites suggested between 1000
and 4,000 angling trips can generate one
Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) per job per year in
that site.
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Mackerel (27%) and whiting (19%) are the
most common species caught by number,
followed by bass (10%), dogfish/catshark
(6%), and dab/cod (5% each).
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The UKNEAFO3 (second phase) established
that the highest visit numbers were in
Southeast England, with the Southwest
taking second place. Mean site visits for
England and Wales were on average 5–6
times higher than for Scottish sites.
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Anglers’ recreational activities make
significant contributions to local economies,
These anglers make a significant contribution
to the economy. In 2012, sea anglers resident
in England spent £1.23 billion on their
recreational pursuit, equivalent to £831 million
1http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/seaangling/finalreport.htm
2 Data were collected through the Office of National Statistics (ONS)
household surveys [‘Opinions and lifestyles survey’], face- to-face
interviews with anglers by inshore fisheries and conservation
authorities (IFCAs), catch diaries, and online surveys (almost 3000
online survey responses in 2012).
1
direct spend once imports and taxes had
been excluded.
3http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/
MSEP Facts & Figures Series 4: Recreational Sea Anging (RSA)
and also gain considerable non-market value
from marine ecosystems.4
Recreational boat fishing in England
There are 339 charter boats registered in
England.
600
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On average 60% of the catches are returned
on the charter boats surveyed.
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Cod (175 tonnes) and pollack (129 tonnes)
were the most common species landed by
charter vessels.
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Flounder and dab feature very highly in shore
results.
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Smoothound and Thornback ray (and other
ray generally) feature highly in both shore
and boat lists in all regions.
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Other species important to anglers not
specifically named in the survey but added
by respondents include mackerel, tope, whiting, blond ray, and all other members of
the ray family.6
DAB
FLOUNDER
BLACK BREAM
CORGER
400
1000
WRASSE
POLLACK
SOLE
PLAICE
MULLET
FLOUNDER
COD
SMOOTHOUND
300
0
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SMOOTHOUND
POLLACK
COD
UK Shore (Excl. Ireland)
100
UK Overall (Excl. Ireland)
800
600
5 Sea Angling 2012 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.
uk/20140108121958/http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/seaangling/index.htm
SOLE
WRASSE
BLACK BREAM
MULLET
SMOOTHOUND
POLLACK
FLOUNDER
0
COD
200
THOMBACK RAY
400
4Beaumont et al. 2008; Stolk 2009; Scottish Government 2009
2
500
200
While most species make both shore and
boat lists, mullet are primarily a shore target.
(High priority for shore anglers but not in the
top 10 boat species.)
6 NFSA, 2005
0
THROMBACK RAY
There are large differences between English
regions, with the top species in one region
being non-existent or unimportant in others.
BASS
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Shore fishing was the most common type of
sea angling – almost three million angler-days
were spent fishing along the English shore,
compared with one million for private or rented
boats and 0.1 million on charter boats. Anglers
had most success on charter boats, catching 10
fish per day on average compared with around
five from private boats and only two from the
shore. Shore and boat anglers have clearly
different priorities in terms of target species.5
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200
PLAICE
Private and rental boat activity was estimated
at 0.5–1 million days of effort per year.
THROMBACK RAY
300
Shore fishing in England
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500
BASS
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UK Boats (Excl. Ireland)
BASS
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Figure 1: The ‘National Fish Survey’, carried
out by the NFSA Conservation Group in 2005
came up with the following results for the
main species caught from:
The Y-axis represents the ranking awarded by the
survey participant in terms of importance.
MSEP Facts & Figures Series 4: Recreational Sea Anging (RSA)
Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and cod
(Gadus morhua) angling data
Sea angling and well-being
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Sea angling also has important social and
well-being benefits, including providing
relaxation, physical exercise, and a route for
socialising. The main social benefits listed
by interviewees were that it increased their
quality of life, helping them ‘experience
nature’, ‘being outdoors and active’, and to
‘relax and get away from things’.7
Anglers felt that improving fish stocks was
the most important factor that would increase
participation in sea angling. Anglers felt the number and size of fish
had declined over the past five years and
even more so over the past 20–30 years;
the economic and well-being impacts are
therefore correspondingly less than they
could be if stocks recovered.
For anglers, the place identity indicators
scored higher on average when it came to
how they viewed the sites they fished.
Through a combination of primary valuation
and benefits transfer, monetary and nonmonetary valuation, the UKNEA survey8
aimed to assess the cultural ecosystem
service benefits surrounding angling,
which include recreational, aesthetic,
spiritual, educational, health, identity, social
bonding, sense of place, and existence
values for marine biodiversity. The survey
also aimed to provide useful data for the
Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) Impact
Assessment and evaluation of potential
Scottish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs),
and for future marine Special Areas of
Conservation (SAC) Impact Assessments.
Non-monetary results show that recreational
users of the marine environment readily
relate to a range of less tangible wellbeing
benefits that can be measured and used to
operationalise cultural ecosystem services
and include them in discussions over marine
protection.9
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The UK has obligations under European
law to estimate the recreational catches of
several species, including bass and cod.
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The total bass caught was estimated at
380–690 tonnes, of which 240–440 tonnes
were kept.
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Commercial catches of bass in England were
estimated at 897 tonnes in 2012.
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Catch-and-release rates between 40% and
80% from boats and shore anglers were
recorded.
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The total cod caught was estimated at 480–
870 tonnes, of which 430–820 tonnes were
kept. Comparatively, around 1500 tonnes of
cod were landed commercially in the North
Sea, English Channel, Celtic Sea, and Irish
Sea combined.
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Catch-and-release rates between 20% and
60% for charter boats and shore anglers
were recorded.
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Catch was estimated by multiplying CPUE
(catch per unit effort; in this case catch per
day angling) by angling effort (the number of
days spent fishing per year).
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Overall, bass is clearly the most important
species for RSA, leading UK and England
shore, boat, and combined results. Only one
English region (North East) has a different
top species.
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Bass is a premier angling species throughout
Europe, and is currently not a quota species
under the Common Fisheries Policy Total
Allowable Catches (CFP TACs). This causes
difficulties in terms of scientific data
collection, exact landings data, and the ability
to regulate and enforce catch limits/quotas.10
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Bass is not subject to any species-specific
management plan, nor are there any annual
quotas in place in EU fisheries. There are
limited species-specific gear restrictions
7 http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/seaangling/finalreport.htm
8http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/
9 UKNEAFO, 2012 http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/
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10 To find out more about the EU CFP and bass
http://www.ccr-s.eu/transfert-pdf/2012/34/CE-Control01.pdf
MSEP Facts & Figures Series 4: Recreational Sea Anging (RSA)
(particularly on mesh size), but in general
the species is managed only as part of the
broader EU fisheries system.11
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The Bass Anglers’ Sportfishing Society
(BASS) claimed that recreational fishing of
the species was worth £100 million in 2004.
The European seabass is both an important
commercial fish species and one of the
most important fish species for recreational
fishermen in the UK. The species is thought to
be particularly vulnerable to over-fishing. The
available evidence suggests that there has
been a population decline in recent years. The
International Council for the Exploration of the
Sea (ICES) recommended that bass catches be
reduced by 20% in 2013 to protect the stock.12
As a result of concerns over bass stocks and
the commercial landings causing a significant
decline, BASS13,14 was formed in 1973. It has
campaigned since then to ensure that the
value of recreational bass fishing is understood
and that the depletion caused by commercial
pair-trawling is halted (as the UK economy is
losing value through this commercial fishery,
which is clearly an unsustainable use of such
a charismatic and iconic species, both socially
and environmentally). ICES advises that
commercial landings should be no more than
1,155 tonnes in ICES areas IV and VII) for 2015.15
Discards are known to take place but the data
are insufficient to estimate a discard proportion
that could be applied to give catch advice.16
11http://www.iffo.net/files/iffoweb/approved-raw-materials/product/
uk-ireland-seabass-byproduct-surveillance-feb-13.pdf
A minimum landing size (MLS) of 36 cm
was introduced in 1990 to protect the stock,
along with a range of other measures. Sport
fishing bodies, whose members highly value
the challenge offered by larger fish, have
campaigned to increase the MLS for bass.
Adult female seabass do not breed until they
are at least 40–45 cm, hence increasing the
MLS to 45 cm would help to ensure that more
females can breed before they are caught. Such
a change would have economic implications
for some commercial fishermen and therefore it
has not happened.
The Angling Trust
The Angling Trust was formed
in 2009 from a merger of five
separate angling organisations
who came together to form
a single representative body for all forms of
recreational angling (very broadly categorised
as coarse, game, and sea angling). The Angling
Trust is the government-recognised national
representative body of angling in England
(Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have
their own bodies) and receives funding, like
other national sport governing bodies, from
Sport England. Staff members working on
angling development and participation are
largely funded by money from Sport England.
Fish Legal is the legal arm of the Angling Trust,
which fights pollution, makes polluters pay, and
carries out a host of other legal activities for its
members who, unlike the Angling Trust, cover
the whole of the UK.17
Membership totals approximately 15,000
individual members (2013) across all disciplines.
Those who fish at sea (either exclusively or as
well as in freshwater) account for approximately
25% of the Trust’s total individual membership.
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Approximately 1,600 member clubs exist, of
which 240 are sea angling clubs, societies, or
organisations.
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The combined membership of all member
organisations is approximately 350,000.
12http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN00745.pdf
13http://www.ukbass.com/
14 To find out more about BASS and the value of recreational bass
angling and their concerns over bass stocks and habitat damage,
and quotas, see: http://www.ukbass.com/ http://www.ukbass.com/
tag/quotas/
15http://www.ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2014/2014/bss-47.pdf
16http://www.ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2013/2013/bss-47.pdf
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17 More info on the Trust and Fish Legal can be found here:
http://www.anglingtrust.net/page.asp?section=30&sectionTitle=About+the+Angling+Trust
MSEP Facts & Figures Series 4: Recreational Sea Anging (RSA)
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Individual adult membership is £25 per year
and clubs pay an annual fee based on the
number of members they have.
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Clubs and organisations can also choose to
be Fish Legal members, for which they pay
an additional fee. Fish Legal can only act for
its member clubs and organisations.
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Recruiting new members has been, and
continues to be, a huge challenge. Despite
the financial climate, however, individual
membership has grown.
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A wide variety of benefits18 is offered to
members of the national representative body.
The Angling Trust is run by a board of directors
and does not have charitable status – a strategic
decision made to ensure it could campaign and
lobby. There are now over 40 employees of the
Angling Trust across the country. A Marine Group
meets annually to discuss sea angling issues
of strategic importance to the Angling Trust.
The regions have been based around the IFCA
regions as closely as possible in order to facilitate
consistency.19 Black Bream – Kingmere MCZ: Kingmere
Reef, the key UK black bream breeding site in
the English Channel, has been put forward as a
recommended MCZ.
The Angling Trust’s Sussex Marine Region
has launched a campaign20 to recognise the
importance of one of Sussex’s most iconic sea
fish species – the black bream.
Despite the status as one of Sussex’s most
highly prized and respected angling species,
it remains unmanaged. Recently anglers have
seen a decline in the quality and abundance
of bream as unsustainable commercial fishing
pressure from pair trawling and unmanaged
charter boats has taken its toll on vulnerable
breeding and nesting bream stocks.
The Angling Trust’s Sussex Marine Region’s
campaign aims to highlight the black bream as
18http://www.anglingtrust.net/page.asp?section=35&sectionTitle=Angling+Trust+Member+Benefits
19http://www.anglingtrust.net/page.asp?section=833&sectionTitle=Angling+Trust+Regions%3A+Get+Involved%21
20http://www.anglingtrust.net/news.asp?section=29&itemid=1913
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one of Sussex’s most valuable natural assets
as well as focusing on its socio-economic
value to Sussex. Recreational angling must
be fairly represented in decisions about the
management of the Kingmere MCZ and the
Angling Trust wishes to help identify other
important black bream breeding sites in Sussex.
By doing so collaboratively with Sussex IFCA,
it hopes to help introduce a long-term species
management plan for black bream in Sussex
waters that benefits all stakeholders.21
Further reading:
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A summary of sea angling
in England. Retrieved from http://
www.anglingtrust.net/page.
asp?section=40&sectionTitle=Sea+Angling
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Kenter, J.O., Bryce, R., Davies, A., Jobstvogt, N.,
Watson, V., Ranger, S., Solandt, J.L., Duncan,
C., Christie, M., Crump, H., Irvine, K.N., Pinard,
M., Reed, M.S. (2013). The value of potential
marine protected areas in the UK to divers and
sea anglers. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
Retrieved from http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org
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The Economic Value of Marine and Coastal
Recreation in West Wales: A Non-Technical
Executive Summary. Retrieved from http://
www.walesactivitymapping.org.uk/economicvaluation/
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Value of the Impact of Marine Protected
Areas on Recreation and Tourism Services –
Case Study Draft Final Report, prepared for
Defra, 5 June 2013.
Briefings on Recreational Angling
in the UK
1. Recreational Sea Angling (RSA)
2. Recreational Sea Angling (RSA): Minimum
Landing Sizes (MLS)
3. Recreational Diving in the UK
Series 4 was written and researched by Chris Williams (Marine
Socio-Economics Project Coordinator at NEF). All the data
examined in this series come from the UK Government, The
MMO or Defra – unless otherwise referenced.These data
sources can be found on the MSEP website:
http://www.mseproject.net/data-sources
21 http://www.anglingtrustsussexmarine.net/#/blackbream/4569654667
Published by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), August 2014.
www.neweconomics.org Tel: 020 7820 6300 Registered charity number 1055254.