The latest update of the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) Good Fish Guide sees cuttlefish, trawl caught from the English Channel, join the marine charity’s ‘Fish to Avoid’ list, ringing alarm bells for the future health of the enigmatic species in UK waters.

Assessing what species are caught using which method and where, the Good Fish Guide provides a traffic light system to illustrate the health of the UK’s commercial fish populations. Red rated stocks join the charity’s ‘Fish to Avoid’ list, whilst green rated are the most sustainable options and considered the ‘Best Choice’.

Cuttlefish are one of the most intelligent invertebrates, with a large brain allowing them to learn and remember. Recently, the mollusc was even found to eat less during the day if their favourite meal is on offer in the evening. A chameleon of the sea, cuttlefish are also able to change colour to blend in with their surroundings, despite being colour blind themselves. When they feel threatened cuttlefish produce clouds of ink. This ink, alongside the cuttlefish’s staggering increase in commercial value, is what gives them the nickname ‘black gold’.

Charlotte Coombes, Good Fish Guide Manager: “Between 2008 and 2017, catches of cuttlefish more than doubled. Additionally, numbers of cuttlefish reported in 2017 could be the lowest on record. The dramatic increase in catches, alongside several reports identifying a rapid decline in cuttlefish populations in the English Channel, has led to a red rating in the update to the Good Fish Guide.”

The dramatic growth in cuttlefish catches over the last decade has been fuelled by a huge increase in the value of cuttlefish – which has more than doubled from around £1.50 per kilo in 2008 to around £3.60 per kilo in 2017.  In fact, landings into the UK in 2018 were worth a staggering £14.9 million.  While much of what the UK catches is exported to other countries in Europe, there’s growing interest in the UK due to its similarity in taste to squid, and it may well start to appear more on local restaurant menus in the near future.

Shockingly, given the scale of the fishery, there are currently no catch limits in place, no restrictions on where or when these animals can be caught, no minimum size limits, and no plans to make sure that populations stay at sustainable levels. These factors contribute to MCS adding trawled English Channel cuttlefish to its ‘Fish to Avoid’ list. Of real concern is the fact that the vast majority (over 90%) of the cuttlefish that are being caught haven’t yet had the chance to breed. They’re caught in trawls, offshore, before they can come inshore to lay their eggs. Some forms of bottom trawling can also cause significant habitat damage, affecting not only cuttlefish but seabed habitats and other marine animals which call the English Channel home. If too many cuttlefish are removed before they can breed, the population will really struggle to sustain itself.

Coombes continues: “MCS urgently wants to see management keeping up with the growth of this fishery to protect cuttlefish during their spawning season, and to ensure the population can stay healthy from one year to the next.”

A smaller proportion of cuttlefish are caught inshore, in pots and traps, when they come inshore to breed. While some of these pots will catch the fish before they can breed, others will catch them right at the end of their lives, after they’ve bred, making for a much more sustainable fishing model. Pots and traps have a low impact on the seabed and other species, and there are more management measures to control inshore fishing in some areas, meaning more opportunity to control catch numbers. These fisheries are rated 4, so whilst not a ‘Fish to Avoid’, it is recommended that people seek alternatives where possible.

Other movements in the Good Fish Guide include:

• Brown crab, caught in creels (pots) around Shetland, has bounced back following a reduction in fishing pressure and tighter control rules on harvesting and is now green rated by MCS, joining the ‘Best Choice’ list
• Non-certified pole & line-caught skipjack tuna from the Indian Ocean has moved off the Best Choice list and is now amber rated by MCS
• Atlantic wolffish in Iceland has moved off the ‘Fish to Avoid’ list and is now amber rated
• Queen scallops from the Isle of Man are now red rated and all populations caught around the Isle of Man are ‘Fish to Avoid’

Trawl caught cuttlefish and Isle of Man queen scallop now join wild Atlantic halibut, European eel, and several fisheries for cod on MCS’s Red Rated list. Due to fishing pressure, habitat damage and diminishing numbers, urgent action is required to recover these populations to healthy levels. Take the pledge and ‘Say No to Red Rated’ at www.mcsuk.org/red-rated

You can download the Good Fish Guide app, visit the Guide via the MCS website or grab the Pocket Good Fish Guide to ensure that you’re making the most sustainable seafood choices possible.