Octopus Rescue: A Sign of Things to Come
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN
The Pett Level Rescue Boat team, usually tasked with helping distressed swimmers and vessels, found themselves in uncharted waters on Saturday 4 July when they responded to an alert regarding an unusual casualty: a live octopus, marooned in the sand by the receding tide. Steve Hill, the Chair of the Launch Authority, told HIP that his members carefully recovered the creature before safely returning it to the sea. Another successful, albeit unusual mission, for the team of valued community volunteers.
Pett Level Rescue Octopus Team
While the sighting of this eight-armed cephalopod may still feel like a novelty for beachgoers, its presence is likely to signal the onset of a serious ecological upheaval in local waters. For the fishermen of Hastings, however, it represents a potential threat to their livelihoods.
The sightings of octopuses are becoming more common along the South Coast, particularly off Cornwall. Marine biologists explain that the sudden surge in sightings – a phenomenon known as a ‘bloom’ – is driven by environmental factors, such as a mild winter followed by a warm breeding season, supercharged by the long-term warming of our seas due to global warming.
The warm-water creatures make their way here from much hotter southern waters as sea temperatures rise. This migration is driven not only by the current marine heatwave, but also by longer-term climatic trends that are pushing sea surface temperatures 4–5°C above average in parts of the English Channel. So-called ‘heat domes’ exacerbate the problem by trapping the hot air to drive record-breaking air temperatures.
In the short term, some of us may bask in the tropical conditions and enjoy lazy afternoons on the beach. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that the ecological shift scientists have long warned about is no longer a distant forecast but a present-day reality.
The rising sea temperatures along the Kent and Sussex coastline are already impacting traditional marine habitats, the very staples of the historic, shore-launched Hastings fishing fleet. The numbers of cod, Dover sole, plaice, herring, mackerel and skate fished locally are declining, as these species move further north to find colder waters. Seagrasses and kelp forests are also disappearing rapidly from around the English Channel.
The rise in octopus numbers is now beginning to have an impact on shellfish stocks, too. Octopuses are voracious predators of crustaceans, and as their population is set to explode, stocks of crab and lobsters are likely to be decimated. This will impact shellfish potters who use specialised baited traps (known as ‘pots’) to catch their quarry which are highly prized.
The octopus threat is only the latest blow to an already battered fishing fleet, which has seen the number of active beach-launched boats that make up the historic fleet in Hastings reduced to almost single figures.
Roland Kelly, skipper of the Senlac Jack, has witnessed first-hand the dramatic decline in Hastings’ fishing fleet over his 40-year career. When he first put to sea in 1986, he says the waters off the Sussex coast were teeming with cod, Dover sole and plaice, but those abundant hauls are “now a fading memory”. He blames the steady encroachment of large EU trawlers, “even within the post-Brexit six-mile limit,” of over-fishing and of stripping the inshore grounds of mature fish. As a result, “catches today barely cover costs” he says.
Add to that the bureaucratic nature of fishing quotas, whose rigid inflexibility makes them virtually impossible to meet, along with the prospect of extended Marine Protection Zones – a conservation initiative he supports for safeguarding critical habitats, yet whose expansion he fears will impose even greater constraints.
Mr Kelly believes fishing is a passion but “a passion too few young people seem to share today”. The restrictions have simply become too onerous and he asks is it any wonder “given the difficult working conditions, the financial uncertainty, and the bureaucracy why any young person would want to work the boats anymore.”
He acknowledges an ecological shift is under way in the English Channel with sea temperatures rising and traditional fish stocks depleting. He also believes the threat posed by the rise in octopus numbers, whilst real, is not the most immediate concern of local fishermen.
The longer-term shift in marine life will inevitably present opportunities, as new species arrive in local waters. Increasing numbers of octopus and blue fin tuna could, in time, he says, provide lucrative markets. But, he adds, there is no certainty that the octopus will stay if their supply of crustaceans disappears. New equipment will also be needed along with new skills, and new supply chains – all at considerable cost, and it remains to be seen whether these gains will outweigh the losses already being felt across the local fleet.
The rescue of the octopus in Pett Level was undoubtedly an act of kindness, but it also serves as a stark warning. Increasing numbers of octopus are a visible sign that global warming is real and that an increase in sea temperatures will have a massive impact on our town and on the very future of our historic fishing fleet.
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