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<\/p>\nPlease note that data in yesterdays blog on Brexit Age and Values has been updated<\/p>\n
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A message hoisted on the \u2018Fishing Shed\u2019 in Wells Next the Sea before the EU Referendum <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPromises have been made and expectations raised during the referendum campaign and it is now time to examine if and how they can be delivered,\u201d \u00a0<\/em>the National Federation of Fishermen\u2019s Organisations told The Guardian.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, perhaps\u201d <\/em>it added, \u201cthe UK\u2019s geopolitical position means that it is not politically or legally possible just to ringfence most of our fish resources, in the way that, for example, Iceland can. The reality is that most of our stocks are shared with other countries to some degree or other\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n And \u201cwe can certainly seek to renegotiate quota shares, as well as access arrangements, but it is realistic to expect that there will be a price. Who will pay that price is a critical question.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Not exactly vote Leave and \u2018get your fish back\u2019 then.<\/p>\n Nigel Farage with his flotilla on the Thames<\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a little story about Brexit from where I live, Wells Next the Sea in Norfolk, which illustrates the tangled nature of the story.<\/p>\n We have a small but active fishing fleet (now sadly, one of the biggest on the East Coast of England).\u00a0 Like many other \u2018small fishermen\u2019, many blame the EU Common Fisheries Policy and access for foreign boats for their woes, and the lack of quotas allocated to smaller boats.\u00a0 Partly as a result, our local fishermen now fish almost entirely for shellfish such as crabs and lobsters, not fin fish like cod or plaice that have long been covered by quotas.\u00a0 \u00a0Crabs, lobsters and other shell-fisheries are regulated<\/a> and some are covered by quotas<\/a> but not in the same way as fin fish.<\/p>\n I\u2019m no fisheries expert but I do know a bit about it and spent a year or so working to support campaigns intended to help get smaller fishermen a better deal <\/a>from the CFP, when it was being reformed.\u00a0 This was partly successful in that the Member States including the UK agreed to a policy designed to encourage this but in practice the UK Government did not use it to help small fishermen, a decision contested in the Courts by Greenpeace.\u00a0 Even so, many in the fishing industry still saw the EU as the problem rather than the attitude of their own government (see EU fisheries reform fails to\u00a0live up to green hopes<\/a>).<\/p>\n In my view it is damaging to communities, employment and the environment that fisheries policy does not favour smaller operators doing more sustianble forms of fishing but I don\u2019t think leaving the EU will help.\u00a0 The problem is in Whitehall and Westminster not in Brussels, only UK politicians like to pretend it is, knowing that this plays to beliefs prevalent in the industry.<\/p>\n In reality fishing stocks have been depleted by over-fishing, and that started decades before we joined the EU.\u00a0 There are also a large number of access agreements made outside EU legislation between countries around the North Sea which would need to be drastically changed if Britain\u2019s fishermen were to \u2018get our fishing grounds back\u2019, and many of them currently enjoy access to stocks outside what could ever become British waters.<\/p>\n Ironically, as with farming, \u2018European\u2019 money has also poured into fishing in a way that it has not into many other industries.\u00a0 For example on Wells Quay there is a \u2018fishing shed\u2019, or as it is officially known, the ‘Wells Shellfish Handling Facility’.\u00a0 I am very familiar with this having spent several years of my life helping project manage its laborious construction, when a Harbour Commissioner.\u00a0 The idea was to support the then profitable Velvet Crab fishery, which needed a processing facility.\u00a0 \u2018Velvets\u2019 have now much diminished but the shed is well used by the fishermen, for instance for keeping crab and lobster bait in a cold store.<\/p>\n That shed was built partly with EU fisheries funds: \u00a3130,594.19<\/a> or the total \u00a3421,000 cost came from the European Fisheries Fund. \u00a0Presumably that won\u2019t be happening again after Brexit.\u00a0 And ironic because it is the self-same shed on which the protest against the EU was hung.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve heard from fisheries policy officials and ex Ministers that the main reason the UK Government likes a few big boats doing the fishing rather than lots of little ones is simply that it\u2019s administratively convenient to regulate that way.\u00a0 I can\u2019t see Brexit changing that.<\/p>\n An EU funding logo acknowledged on a display panel (which I designed) outside the shed, which explains where the local fishing is done.\u00a0 It\u2019s popular with visitors but they probably never noticed the EU flag.\u00a0 Maybe it should have been bigger but maybe it wouldn\u2019t have made any difference.<\/p>\n Seems to me that Mr Farage and his friends have led our fishermen up the river.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Please note that data in yesterdays blog on Brexit Age and Values has been updated A message hoisted on the \u2018Fishing Shed\u2019 in Wells Next the Sea before the EU Referendum A week or two ago, chief Brexiteer Nigel Farage … Continue reading A week or two ago, chief Brexiteer Nigel Farage of UKIP led a flotilla of fishermen up the Thames to complain about the EU.\u00a0 Many in the fishing industry campaigned for Brexit.\u00a0 Today came warnings<\/a> that as with many other claims made by the Leave campaign, fishermen may not get what they hoped for.<\/h3>\n
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