For over a century science has been applied to the problem of ensuring a reliable supply of fish, balancing economic benefits and protecting the health of the environment. Fisheries scientists have been working in Lowestoft since the MBA founded a research station here in 1902. By 1921 the scientists working here were well on the way to establishing a thriving fisheries research laboratory, where many of the fundamental theories of fish population dynamics would be developed. Working together with other national institues, the Lowestoft staff contributed to ICES (the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea), and helped to establish the principles for the monitoring and management of living marine resources. The long-term data series and collections from UK waters and wider afield are an enormously valuable resource for studying climate change effects and for modelling changes in fishery policies.
The Fisheries Laboratory took over the site here on these cliffs in the 1950s, expanding its work through the following decades, as part of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. In 1997 its name was changed to Cefas (Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science) and today more than 500 people work at the labs here, and in Weymouth, on topics ranging from fish migration to oceanography, to aquaculture and fish disease, to seabed disturbance, climate change, pollution, recreational fisheries - and of course it continues with the assessment of commercial fish populations to support sustainable fisheries management.
The new building you can see on the cliffs these days was completed in 2019.If you're lucky you can see the research vessel Cefas Endeavor in the harbour, between scientific surveys in the North Sea and beyond
The history of Cefas fisheries laboratory
Cefas wikipedia page