Chasing Fish: 130 Years of Innovation, Displacement and Depletion in Scottish Fisheries

This paper examines 130 years of change in Scottish fisheries, drawing on historical fisheries records from 1890–2020 to investigate how technological innovation, changing fishing practices and management interventions shaped fish catches and fleet behaviour. The authors show that successive advances in vessel power, fish-finding technologies and increasingly efficient mobile fishing gears displaced traditional fishing methods and enabled short-term increases in landings, but also contributed to the depletion of key fish stocks and growing ecological impacts. The study reveals how fisheries governance frequently reacted to declines only after they had occurred, highlighting the need for more precautionary and forward-looking management approaches that anticipate the consequences of technological change and support the long-term sustainability of marine ecosystems and fisheries.

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