Tag Archives: After Brexit
MP says East fishing industry ‘still struggling’ after Brexit
Peter Aldous, the MP for Waveney in Suffolk, told a parliamentary debate on the state of fishing that there had been “no significant improvement” since Britain left the EU. He blamed high fuel costs and labour shortages as well as “the poor terms for fishing that were negotiated”. “In many respects the situation has got worse,” he told the debate. “Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have some of the richest fishing grounds in northern Europe but I’m afraid catch opportunities for local fishermen remain poor because we do not have full control over our waters.” >click to read< 08:50
Stuck in a Dead End: Jersey fishermen give away lobsters after France bans them from selling in French ports
Fishermen at St Helier Port, which was blockaded by French rivals this week, said they had been left in a vicious cycle due to the dispute. France issued a legal notice to British fishermen last night that they were no longer welcome into French ports after one Jersey boat was threatened with violence and turned back. Fisherman Wayne Auger, 46, said: ‘Nobody really knows how this is going to end. ‘The French want to fish on our waters and had this amnesty from our government after Brexit. ‘But we can pay sums like £60,000 for a licence and they pay nothing to fish alongside us. ‘Many of us are running out of bait for the lobster pots and won’t be fishing because we can’t sell the fish to France and the local need isn’t that big.’ photos, >click to read< 14:15
Cornish fishermen forced to re-name catch after Brexit to appeal to British customers
Cornish fishermen have drawn up a detailed plan to sell more of their catch to UK customers as post-Brexit sales to the EU nose dive, and want to rebrand the names of some species to make them more appealing. Megrim and spider crab – two of the biggest catches for boats in the county – are set to be given the more appetising names of Cornish sole and Cornish King crab. Until the UK’s Brexit transition period expired on December 31, about 95 percent of megrim and 85 percent of spider crabs landed by Cornish trawlers was exported to the EU. >click to read< 08:46
Scottish fishermen say their industry is in crisis after Brexit
Scottish fisherman Alistair Sinclair hasn’t taken his boat out since March of last year, the beginning of the pandemic. Sinclair has been a fisherman for over 40 years and says the industry has never experienced a crisis quite like this one. The crisis he’s referring to is not the pandemic — it’s Brexit. Since Jan. 1, when Britain formally left the European Union, truckloads of fish have been stopped at ports on both sides of the English Channel.,, Sinclair says Scottish fishermen are within weeks of declaring bankruptcy. >click to read< 12:21
“This is an absolute shambles –fishermen always seem to get used as a bargaining chip”
Following the UK’s departure from the EU at 11pm on Hogmanay, new rules governing trade have crippled the sector, which is hugely important to many fragile communities across the Highlands and Islands. As a result, many creel boats have stopped fishing altogether, while the transport firms responsible for delivering crab, lobster and langoustine to European buyers staged a drive-slow protest in London on Monday of this week. Fisherman Duncan McAndrew, from Duncraig in Lochalsh, told the Free Press that those reliant on the live export of shellfish had been “absolutely shafted” by UK ministers, who “knew this was going to happen for months. >click to read< 07:45
Fears in France for future of fishing industry after Brexit
Fishermen in northern France have enjoyed nearly 50 years of shared seas during Britain’s membership of the European Union. But a no-deal Brexit is threatening to sink the livelihoods of people in Boulogne-sur-Mer who have been fishing all their lives. “If we don’t have an agreement it will be catastrophic,” says fisherman Laurent Merlin. His haul of flatfish and crabs will be at risk if any deal between the UK and the EU does not guarantee access to the seas off Britain. >video, click to read< 19:45
Guernsey fishermen concerned about access to French waters after Brexit
Commercial fishermen in Guernsey say there is uncertainty over access to French waters after Brexit. When the UK left the EU on Friday, the London Fisheries Convention – which allowed French fishermen to access Bailiwick waters and vice versa – ended. Guernsey States has now introduced new regulation which it says will “ensure continuity of access for the remainder of 2020 for French vessels who previously fished in Bailiwick waters”. >click to read< 19:28
After Brexit – Fishermen chart course away from Europe
The EU referendum results marks “a seismic change” for the fishing industry, according to many in it, as it will restore the UK’s long-lost control over the greater part of the northern European fishing grounds. In Scotland the fleet has declined during Britain’s time in Europe. The 2007 workforce of 4,408 fishermen regularly employed on Scottish-based fishing boats, was approximately half that employed in the early 1970s when Britain joined what was then the European Economic Community (EEC). The number of fishing boats over 10m long was 1318 in 1990, 958 in 2000, and only 583 in 2014. The numbers fell as the European Commission exerted more and more control over how much could be caught, in an efforts to conserve fish stocks which scientists warned were at risk. Read the story here 11:47
