Turning tides for Brightonʻs fishing industry

“It's a way of life, fishing”
Though the city maintains its “sea-centric” identity, Brighton and Hove’s fishing industry has faced considerable challenges. Today, Brighton is nowhere near the top ten fishing cities in the UK—slowly but surely a multitude of issues are pushing aside a working-class industry.
UK fisheries were largely regulated by the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which set fishing quotas across member states. Post-Brexit, the UK regained control over its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and became solely responsible for managing its fisheries.
While this allows for policies tailored to needs specific to the UK's fisheries, it also requires major shifts in management to balance economic, environmental, and social factors. Fishermen especially feel that the “sea of opportunity” they were offered has dried up.
A wide range of professionals in the industry are involved in collecting data and analysing environmental threats and trends to inform regulations. However, there remains a clear disconnect between what different stakeholders perceive as the most pressing issues, what is actually occurring, and the actions being taken in response.
Fishermen—many of whom believed the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was biased against them—were promised that Brexit would grant them greater control over UK waters, with aims to secure 68% of the total catch. But in the end, they fell short by approximately 229,000 tonnes, resulting in losses of around £281 million.
According to Jim Partridge, fisherman for 66 years now at La Poissonnerie, “Brexit obviously affected the fishing industry, but it should have affected us in a positive way from the catching side, since I don't think it would have made any difference to the selling side.”
Michael Bish of MCB Fisheries, argues that little has improved—citing increased bureaucracy, the ongoing presence of foreign boats, and minimal gains for those working in the industry.
“With Brexit, it's made it even harder, because of the border controls, the paperwork and the red tape you have to go through…Nothing materially has changed that much,” said Bish. “There's still foreign vessels fishing off of our coasts, all around the coast.”
Between 2019 and 2020, fishing income of the UK fishing fleet fell by 21%. Though it has partly recovered since, it remains below 2019 levels. Fish exports have remained below pre-pandemic levels in 2023, while imports briefly recovered before falling again.
The industry is currently at a standstill. According to Jack Clarke of the Marine Conservation Society, when government agencies attempt to regulate the industry, there is often a struggle between environmental goals and protecting fishers financially.
“There are national quotas in place and national management, [where] a fisherman can be catching fish in a perfectly legal way—following the rules set out by local authorities as well as national governments—and he can still be contributing to ‘overfishing’, so it makes it very difficult,” said Clarke.
Clarke is referring to the UK government setting fishing quotas for 2024, with 54% of allocated stocks exceeding the catch levels recommended by scientific advice. However, this does not mean that current or past quotas have been financially beneficial for small-scale fisheries.
Dr. Corina Ciocan, principal lecturer in Ecotoxicology and Marine Biology at the University of Brighton, stated that while the UK was still a part of the EU she worked for over five years with fishermen in Hastings, and concurs that they were fighting against the small quota they were awarded compared to the large scale fisheries.
“They argued that they were very sustainable, and they were indeed, but the fact that their catches were going down meant that they didn't have apprentices, they didn't see a future for the next generation in fishing,” said Ciocan.
Amongst increased regulation there has been a visible downfall in the industry.
“When I was a boy, there were probably 30 boats on this beach [Brighton beach],” said Sam Brenchley, a retired fisherman who gave the waters over 50 years of experience. “Now there’s only one...it's becoming harder and harder to make a living and you actually put more time in and more gear.”
The EU fish quota was initially based on historical catches from 1973 to 1978. Over time, it's been proven to only temporarily regulate access and failed to address overfishing. The current UK quotas follow the same system.
Although strict quotas remain in place for species such as tuna, sea bass, and cod to support sustainability, fishmongers like Bish argue that there's a growing disconnect between the regulatory goals and how these measures are seen by experienced fishermen.
Cod is a prime example of this. When local fishermen, such as Brenchley or Partridge say things like “there’s never really been cod in the Channel” or “I’ve only ever caught one or two in my life,” while the UK government has been placing protective measures on the species since 2004, it points to a disconnect between scientific narratives and local experience.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, confirms that though Atlantic cod ranges across the North Sea, Irish Sea, and English Channel, its abundance is patchy. There is historically more cod in the eastern Channel and less in the western Channel (ICES area 7e, near Brighton). So when Sussex fishers say, “We never caught cod,” they’re likely right for their specific waters, even if cod stocks were being heavily fished just 100 miles east or north.

That doesn't change the fact that Cod stocks crashed in many areas by the 1990s and 2000s due to overfishing. However, if policies are being made based on national data and applied broadly, fishermen in low-cod areas like Brighton will feel overregulated for a fish they never even see.
“Fishermen never usually get asked about the control of the waters and what to catch or what to limit,” said Brenchley.
Meanwhile, some sustainable species—such as crab and lobster—are in greater need of effective regulation.
“I think the species that are under the biggest threat at the moment are the lobsters and the crabs,” said Ciocan. “Usually they are harvested in a sustainable way…So it's a very sustainable, environmentally friendly way of fishing, [and] it has to be protected. [But] there are other factors that are impacting the population.”

Ciocan notes that there is still no conclusive research identifying the factors behind rising crab and lobster mortality rates. However, fishermen like Partridge report a sharp decline in one of their most valuable catches: spider crabs.
Partridge also points to the dramatic loss of kelp along the Sussex coast—over 96% of which has disappeared since 1987—sewage dumping and dredging as a main indicator of the impact on the crab population.
While fishers and environmental experts often disagree, this is one area where they see eye to eye.
Environmental regulation aimed at recovering fish stock is more likely to be placed on fisheries than water companies. Fishermen—like Partridge and Brenchley—and scientists like Ciocan view regulatory bans as an oversimplified solution. Sewage pollution is referenced almost universally as a huge issue affecting the ecosystem and by default the industry, however the approach to tackling the issue is often only directed at fishermen practices.
England’s top beaches faced 8,500 hours of sewage dumping last year. One of the worst-hit was Brighton Beach, where Southern Water discharged raw sewage 45 times in 2022, totaling more than 107 hours.
In July 2023, a Brighton & Hove City councillor proposed a motion seeking compensation from Southern Water and calling for the public ownership of water companies. While the motion was debated, the Labour group amended it to remove the call for public ownership, drawing criticism from Green councillors.
As of now, there is no public information indicating that Southern Water has provided any compensation. Ciocan believes this to be business as usual.
“I’m one of the members of the Committee of the Inshore fishery and Conservation Society. We do have two, three fishermen that are involved over there, and I can see their voices being smaller and smaller,” said Ciocan. “Because it [seems] impossible to stop the dredging. It [seems] impossible to stop the sewage tomorrow. But it's very easy to stop the fishermen from going out in the sea tomorrow.”

Partridge and Ciocan also suggest that one particularly harmful substance, tributyltin oxide (TBT)—a once-common antifouling agent used on ships—which was banned 35 years ago, is contributing to the problem. While originally thought to break down quickly, it instead settled into the seabed silt and remained dormant. When the harbor is dredged, all the material that is dredged out of those ports is dumped in the channel just a few miles away from the Sussex coast, particularly affecting areas that once had thriving kelp forests.
There is ongoing controversy over the renewal of Brighton Marina’s dredging license, which allows sediment to be dumped three miles offshore. Despite documented evidence that the sediment frequently returns to shore—impacting a marine conservation zone stretching east from Brighton Marina to Eastbourne, according to Ciocan—the license is due to be extended for another ten years as of May this year.
Meanwhile, there is palpable frustration among those in the industry—many of whom already feel overworked and undercompensated—as they believe they are subject to far stricter regulations than large corporations.
“I think it’s sort of disregarded, the seafood industry in the UK,” said Bish. “It's quite heavily policed…it's not a lucrative business and there's a lot of work. I do 14-hour days, six days a week.”
Clarke, who works with businesses to help them buy only "ocean friendly" seafood—meaning fish that’s caught sustainably and responsibly—states that many companies now require the blue tick label to confirm their product is up to standard. For many big companies, having this certification or being listed as a “good choice” on the Good Fish Guide is necessary before they’ll buy seafood.
The problem, according to Clarke, is that many fisheries in the South Coast and English Channel aren’t meeting these standards, so their seafood can’t be sold easily within the UK. As a result, local fishers often have to sell their catch to overseas markets instead.
There are no real incentives for local businesses to buy or promote those sustainable catches. According to the Marine Conservation Society, 80% of the seafood consumed in the UK comprises just five species: cod, haddock, salmon, tuna, and prawns. This narrow focus exerts significant pressure on these stocks and limits market opportunities for other sustainable species such as hake, coley, and sardines.
As a result, fishermen are often forced to export their products abroad, and the environmental impact continues unchecked and supermarkets often prioritize imported fish like cod and haddock over lesser-known British species.
Many solutions have been proposed, including shifting the types of seafood sold, consumers can also help alleviate this stressor.
“Eat more of what’s local, diverse, sustainable, and in-season. Be flexible, curious, and check your choices,” said Clarke.
Taken together, these issues—pollution, habitat loss, overfishing, and inconsistent policy—paint a picture of an industry under siege from all sides. While each factor may seem small in isolation, their combined effect is far more damaging.
“There isn't one thing, sadly. It's often death by 1000 cuts” said Clarke. “Water quality issues, climate change, poor fisheries management are all having an effect.”
The fishing industry in Brighton is one that is both deeply layered yet deceptively simple in its premise. It's a timeless trade that involves gruesome and tiresome labor—only for the final product to be consumed without a second thought.
In this new age, the question remains: can Brighton—and the UK as a whole—address these issues in a meaningful and impactful way? Or will the industry be forced to weather yet another blow?