European scientists, led by a team at the UK's University of Newcastle upon Tyne, have come up with the North Sea Fisheries Ecosystem Plan (FEP), which claims that fishermen should play a key role in developing future management plans.
The creation of this stewardship role is similar to that adopted by landowners and farmers in order to maintain the countryside. The publication of the report comes just days after controversial European Commission plans were unveiled for an unprecedented ban to help rescue cod stocks from collapse.
"Policy makers have been criticised in the past for having a 'top-down' approach to fisheries management," said professor Chris Frid, project leader of Newcastle University's school of marine sciences and technology.
"However, our team has worked closely with industry and other interested parties to come up with a framework which should see fish stocks rebuilt and the environment protected."
The FEP presents a management framework based on an extensive scientific study into how fisheries can be managed within the ecosystem. This study was based on a wide-ranging consultation with North Sea stakeholders, including fishermen, scientists, conservationists and policy makers.
The North Sea FEP argues that a mixture of measures is required to achieve a sustainable fishing industry. First of all, fishermen should be encouraged to take on a stewardship role to protect the marine ecosystem, and should play an active role in developing fisheries policy. Incentives should also be used to promote the use of less destructive fishing techniques, such nets with larger mesh.
However, the plan also advocates introducing some form of spatial management, including the use of protected areas. This suggestion has already caused concern within the fishing industry.
Under the EC's revised proposals, five areas, covering 20 per cent of the North Sea and which have higher concentrations of cod, would be closed for the year to allow species to recover. Officials say this is a better option for fishermen than reducing the number of days they are permitted to spend at sea, currently around 14 each month.
Quotas for other types of fish, including haddock, would be increased. The Commission also wants a three-month closure in the Kattegat strait between Sweden and Denmark, and in the west of Scotland, where cod have all but disappeared, closed areas would be enlarged.
"If we don't take measures which are quite tough now, the situation can only become worse," claimed EU fisheries commissioner Joe Borg.
But many argue that such a move would spell disaster for an already-struggling industry. This is certainly the view of those on the front line. "The radical recommendation to close down much of the UK coastline would have a devastating impact on the fishing industry and the communities that rely on it, said the Sea Fish Industry Authority in a statement.
As a result, the FEP plan has been met with cautious welcome from some within the fishing industry as a possible means of achieving compromise. "We welcome the balanced approach evident in the FEP, and particularly the central attention given to the importance of stakeholder involvement," said Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations.
"This accords with the experiences of the best fisheries management schemes around the world where stakeholders need to be at the centre of the decision-making process."
The scientists behind the project certainly feel that the plan opens the way to addressing both the concerns of the fishing industry and the pressing need to protect the marine environment.
"The seas and oceans are held in common ownership and we have a duty to steward them for future generations, managing them for a common good," said Frid. "Fishermen spend their lives at sea, they know and understand the environment, and this scheme can help them play a more direct role in the stewardship of our fish stocks, marine life and maritime heritage."