Fishernen's protest

    The news that quotas imposed on English fishing boats to protect stocks are being taken up by foreign boats are causing fishermen to demand action from the Government.  They want safeguards to be brought in to protect the small fishing communities around the coast.   These provide 80% of the fishing, but have only a tiny 4% of  the quotas allowed by the Common Fisheries Policy in Brussels.    The rest are being taken by foreign boats fishing in English waters.   One Dutch vessel is reports by Greenpeace investigators to be taking 23% of the limited fishing permits and taking the dlarge catches back to Holland.
      This country has always suffered from foreign boats sweeping the fish from its seas, though the modern efforts to protect the fish stocks and promote sustainable fishing led to the regulations and system of quotas for each boat.   But now five large foreign-controlled vessels have 32% of the quotas.
       A fisherman's life is already one of complex bureaucracy, governed by the combined powers of Brussels and Parliament.     One boat can take on board fifteen different types of fish in one haul.   "How do you sort them out into what is an allowable catch?" asked one Cornish fisherman.   Even though he now had a smaller boat of under ten metres, and so was outside the official quota system, he still had to have catches allowed by Government rules.
     A typical bulletin issued for November by the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation Ltd. in Newlyn, the large fishing port, gives quotas.   Plaice in four different sea areas varies from 50kg to 200 kg per month, monkfish in one area 2.4 tonnes of live weight in only one arena, megrim 4 tonnes per vessel per month, and similarly lists thirteen other types of fish with no landings allowed for some and with a special ban on ray fish landings.
      The larger beam trawlers also have severe restrictions.  One was allowed  two and a half tonnes of monkfish over two months, but the owner said he needed to catch ten tonnes each trip to make a living.
       The former rules to discard any fish caught outside the allowed type are gradually being dissolved and discards will be abandoned when the reformed fishing policy is launched next year.   Maria Damanaki, the retiring Fisheries Commissioner in  Brussels claims to have ended the scandal of discarded fish in Europe, though others say that the process had already started before her arrival in 2010.   She also laid stress on protecting the small fishing communities, a challenge now taken up by the Dept of Environment, Fishing and Rural Affairs, who told me:"We value the inshore local communities.  In 2014 their catch was increased by 740 tonnes and we are taking steps to maximise their use of UK quotas.   Any company applying to fish with our quotas must show a clear economic link to our country.  All large vesses, mostly UK crewed, make catches in offshore waters out of reach by inshore.  
     We are urgently reviewing the economic value of all UK flagged vessels."


      Efforts are being made to restore rights to the small inshore fleets and communities.    This is as it should be, say the fishermen.  One Newlyn fisherman told me:  "The answer to our problems?  Fishermen should work it out for themselves."    And, of course, they are the only ones who know and understand about fish.