Name: Britain: How climate change affects fishers
Uploaded: 2025-12-27T15:39:14.073Z
Duration: 3 min 21 s
Description: As the oceans heat up, octopuses are migrating to the English coast. The newcomers are depleting local fish stocks, though fishers can profit from the new species, too.

As the oceans heat up, octopuses are migrating to the English coast. The newcomers are depleting local fish stocks, though fishers can profit from the new species, too.

Brixham

Fishers along England’s south coast, particularly in Brixham, have experienced a significant increase in octopus populations, attributed to warming ocean temperatures. This change has disrupted traditional fishing for lobster and crab, as octopuses prey on these species and occupy traps, leading to uncertainty and reduced catches for local fishers.

Researchers link the octopus boom to climate change, noting that the region’s warmer waters now suit species previously uncommon in the area. While this presents new economic opportunities through octopus sales domestically and for export, fishers remain concerned about the long-term sustainability of both the octopus boom and their livelihoods.

Britain: How climate change affects fishers

When Alan Steers sets out, it's always with a sense of trepidation. For generations, the local fishers have caught lobster, crabs and mussels. But this year, it's all different. They fear that as so often lately, their traps will come back empty. Yeah, well normally the crab would come up over. They go in through this hole here. We have bait underneath this band that attracts the crab. But what we're finding now is also the octopus coming in over, going in there and eating all the crab that's inside of the pot. England's south coast fishers have been invaded by octopuses. Alan shows us a picture of a large one that his son Alfie pulled out of the sea. That's Alfie, my son, yeah. That was probably 10 to 12 kilos, I reckon, that octopus. Unbelievable. Octopuses like these are wreaking havoc here. They're eating the lobsters and crabs that the fishers want to catch. So these fishermen are now catching octopuses. But Alfie and his father are wondering, will they be back next year? And can they make money with them? There's lots of uncertainty. The octopus is very new and our biggest concerns is they won't be back next year. This is just a one season or two season phenomenon. But what they've done is they've eaten all the crab and lobster stocks that we know so well. So this is a problem for us. Times are tough for Britain's fishers. In the 90s there were still 20,000 of them. Now that number has halved. Will even more have to close shop? Bryce Stewart researches the protection of fish stocks. He's set up a project to better understand what is going on under the sea. The global warming and the warming of the oceans has been a very significant factor behind this boom in octopus this year. Because this is the so-called common octopus. It's not normally common here but it's common in warmer places. Now we've become warmer and so the habitat here has become more suitable for this species of octopus. Bryce Stewart is collecting data and trends. He believes there will be a similar octopus boom in coming years. Yeah, I mean look, there's only so much we can do about these changes. It's more about adapting to them. And so in future maybe octopus will just become a feature of the marine ecosystems here and fishermen will see them as one of the other target species that they fish for. As the boom in spring and summer has shown, you can make money with octopus. Brixham has one of the three biggest markets for fresh seafood in England. Yeah, it became sort of very, very popular. Sort of the UK, we were selling quite a lot to the UK to wholesalers which were selling it into sort of restaurants all around England. And then we started to sort of get a lot of interest then from export buyers being sort of coon fisheries, fowl fish, the ones that sort of export into Italy, Spain and France. Those countries had experienced a drop in octopus catches, which is good news for Alan Steer. He wants to get his small business ready for the future. Next year, they'll be fishing for octopus again.

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