We’ve caught a couple of pre-reports on this, but now the full paper is available for all to read at PLoS 1. The report is based on historical fish landings reported from the Firth. This sees a healthy and diverse fishery in the early 19th century. After this date the fisheries effort intensified, and commercial landings for each species targeted in turn is seen to go through a boom followed within a few decades with collapse.

The only commercial fisheries that remain today are reported to be for Nephrops and scallops (Pecten maximus, Pectinidae). The report damns the fishing industry for forcing a repeal of the trawl ban in 1984 that had been put in place since 1889. It further argues that modern intensive Nephrops fisheries are preventing the recovery of other fish stocks.

Thurstan RH, Roberts CM (2010) Ecological Meltdown in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland: Two Centuries of Change in a Coastal Marine Ecosystem. PLoS ONE 5(7): e11767. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011767