New technology will be legally required to monitor fishing activity at sea
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Large fishing vessels in English waters will be legally required to install on-board cameras, sensors and GPS to monitor their fishing activity, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has announced.
Subject to parliamentary timings, large pelagic fishing vessels will need to install remote electronic monitoring (REM) systems from November 2028. This will make information available to scientists, such as where vessels are fishing, what they’re catching, and whether they accidentally catch marine mammals, seabirds, or sharks.
In turn, this will make it easier for regulators to spot and act proportionately on rule-breaking fishing practices, helping manage fisheries and protect marine life sustainably.
Pelagic trawlers are large fishing boats designed to catch shoaling fish such as mackerel or herring from open waters. Many of these boats already have REM systems installed, so the latest move will bring the rest of the fleet in line.
‘This is a major step forward for protecting our seas, and the fact that most of the fleet is already on board speaks volumes,’ said fisheries minister Stephen Morgan.
‘For the first time, we will be able to fully monitor fishing activity at sea, ensuring a level playing field for everyone in the industry and helping scientists get the evidence they need to support our fish stocks and marine wildlife.’
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The announcement follows new fishing regulations announced by the UK government’s Marine Management Organisation last week. Aimed at rebuilding depleted stocks in the Celtic Sea, English Channel and Irish Sea, the regulations – which come into force from 26 November – stipulate that those fishing must use larger mesh sizes and more selective fishing gear.
This year, new government analysis found that UK fishing quotas exceeded scientific recommendations in 58 per cent of cases in 2026. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) recommended zero-catch limits for some cod stocks and advised consumers to avoid red-rated mackerel because of sustained overfishing and international quota disputes.
Last year, a report by Oceana found half of the UK’s top ten fish stocks – including North Sea cod, North Sea herring, North East Atlantic mackerel and Southern North Sea edible crab – are critically low, being overexploited, or both. One in six of all UK stocks are in a critical condition, yet are still being fished beyond safe limits.
Twenty-six giant supertrawlers were also found fishing in the UK’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) between January 2020 and January 2025, racking up 4.2 years, almost 37,000 hours, of fishing, equivalent to more than 7,380 hours each year. These vast vessels use enormous nets to catch hundreds of tonnes of fish indiscriminately, meaning they also haul in large amounts of bycatch such as dolphins, seals, rays and sharks.
Only last week did Greenpeace announce it had created an underwater ‘boulder barrier’ in the UK’s most bottom-trawled MPA to protect porpoises living there. In total, the boulder barrier effectively closed 116 square kilometres of the southern North Sea MPA to bottom trawling.
