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Why now is a critical time in the fight to end overfishing

school of fish
Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash

With Brexit negotiations now over, its natural for people to be tired of all the fish fighting. But whilst the UK and the EU have agreed on who gets to fish in certain areas, one crucial issue is still pending: how much will be fished?

This week, the UK and the EU start negotiating 2021 catch limits - otherwise known as Total Allowable Catches (TACs) - for over 70 fish populations shared among the two parties. This will be the first time the UK negotiates with the EU as a non-Member State.

Coinciding with these negotiations is the launch of a UK fisheries audit commissioned by Oceana, which provides an evidence-based snapshot of UK fish stocks' status and sets a benchmark for the state of our fisheries following the UK's departure from the EU. It analyses 104 fish populations and also shines a light on the devastating impact that setting catch limits higher than recommended by scientists is having on them.

READ: Why Brexit is making the future of fish look so bleak

Why Brexit is making the future of fish look so bleakconversations.indy100.com

The future of fish looks bleak in Europe.

It shows that only 36 per cent of the audited stocks were known to be healthy in terms of stock size and only 38 per cent sustainably exploited. The remaining stocks are data-limited. Of the 'top 10' most economically important fish stocks, six are being overfished or are in a "critical" state, including North Sea herring, North Sea cod, and Southern North sea crab. Data limitations for over a third of stocks means they cannot be adequately assessed, leaving them at greater risk of unsuitable management decisions.

The State of the top 10 UK fish stocks from Oceana UK Fish Audit 22 Jan 2021Photo credit: Oceana

Particularly worth noting is cod, given it is a firm favourite in fish and chip shops across the UK. Cod has been significantly overfished over many years. Unsustainable fishing pressure, and politicians setting catches at levels higher than that scientifically advised, has led to a series of cod stock declines and collapses, to the extent that currently none of the UK cod stocks can be considered healthy and sustainably exploited.

Despite progress made in the exploitation of some commercially important fish in recent years, the UK (as part of the EU, at the time) has failed to meet the 2020 deadline to end overfishing agreed by the United Nations (UN) and enshrined in international commitments.

The UK urgently needs to comply with these international laws and the sustainable fisheries objectives in the recently adopted UK Fisheries Act.

Overfishing is not just bad news for our marine life. It threatens our fishing industry's future with knock-on impacts on our coastal towns and the seafood processing industry. It is also important for food security to ensure sustainable supplies for the future, given the important part played in our diets by British favourites like cod, herring, mackerel and sole.

The UK government has frequently claimed that post Brexit would set a gold standard for sustainable fishing and meet international biodiversity and sustainability commitments. As negotiations on catch limits for 2021 begin, it has an opportunity to prove that it can keep its word.

Melissa Moore is a Marine conversationalist and Senior UK Policy Advisor to Oceana.


Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.