Heritage
Cefas' origins date back to 1902 when a small fisheries
laboratory was established in Lowestoft, a major North Sea fishing
port at the time. Initially focused on offshore fisheries, the work
broadened over the decades to encompass inshore waters and wider
marine and aquatic environmental issues.
Throughout the 20th century, there were four principle
laboratories in the UK: at Lowestoft, Conwy, Weymouth and
Burnham-on-Crouch.
Known previously as the Directorate of Fisheries Research, our
name and status changed in 1997 to the Centre for Environment,
Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) when we became an
executive agency of what was then the Ministry of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food and is now the Department of Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra).
For details about our development over the past 100+ years,
including information about our former research vessels, click
on the location links in the righthand column.