Jens Christian Holst has ideas that fall outside those normally heard on how marine stocks should be managed, including that increased fishing can be beneficial – even vital in some circumstances, while underfishing can be even more damaging than overfishing.
To many fishermen his ideas will strike a chord with what the industry has been telling science and government for years, although the scientific establishment is maybe less likely to welcome his ideas.
He has argued that the North Atlantic mackerel fishery should have been 5 million tonnes last year, instead of the roughly million tonne fishery that it actually was, commenting that the stock is believed to be somewhere between 12 and 17 million tonnes based on tag results, but has been managed on the basis of there being a 3 million tonne mackerel population.
“In my view we have been too precautionary in our approach and built up pelagic stocks that are too large given the production...
