• Observing and modelling
• Marine Climate Change Centre (MC3)
• Ecosystems and biodiversity
• Assessing human impacts
• Animal health and food safety
• Fisheries information
  • Fisheries Science Partnership
  • Commercial species
  • Discards and fishing gear technology
  • Tagging programmes
  • Ecologically important fish habitats
  • Ageing fish
  • Recreational sea angling
  • Surveys
  • Deep-water species, NE Atlantic
  • Under-utilised species
  • Freshwater fisheries
    • Species list
    • Economic importance
    • Sustainability
  • Non-native species
  • Salmonids
  • Eels
  • Fish stomach records
  • Fish-eating birds
  • Unusual fish
  • Species of conservation importance

Economic importance

Salmon and freshwater fisheries make major economic, social and recreational contributions within England and Wales, and some rural areas rely heavily on income from these fisheries. The total annual spend by anglers in England and Wales is estimated at between £3.3 billion (source : Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Review Group report 2000) and £5 billion (source : Labour's Charter for Angling). They support recreational and commercial fisheries in rivers, estuaries and coastal waters estimated to have a total value of £127M. 

The same salmon stocks are exploited elsewhere in the North Atlantic, in fisheries off West Greenland and to the north of the Faroe Islands, and in the coastal waters of neighbouring countries. To a lesser extent, eels also support fisheries that can be of importance to local rural communities; the value of these fisheries, mostly for export, has declined in recent years from £5M in 1997/98 to less than £1M.  Coarse fish species such as carp (Cyprinus carpio), perch (Perca fluviatilis) and pike (Esox lucius), on the other hand, are exploited almost entirely by recreational fisheries.  Angling remains one of the most popular recreational activities in the UK and is estimated to be worth  around £2.3 billion to local rural economies.