Why is the South West fishing industry unhappy with the Brexit deal?
‘Disappointment and a fudge!’ That’s the reaction from the South West’s fishing industry to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, which has now come into force.
Last updated 4th Jan 2021
Under the new agreement the UK can catch more ‘high volume, low value’ fish, such as mackerel and herring according to The South West Fish Producers’ Organisation, but EU fishermen still have higher quotas for fish like Dover Sole and Plaice than UK fishermen had hoped for.
The latest agreement allows EU fishermen in the first six miles of the UK’s 12-mile sovereign coastal zone.
Jim Portus, chair of the South West Fish Producers’ Organisation, hopes in future that quota agreements can be changed to provide more opportunities to UK fishermen as the British industry grows.
He’s also been in contact with his French counterparts and says dialogue between the two organisations will continue – if nothing else to ease any tensions or potential future disputes after ‘scallop wars’ involving Brixham fishermen in 2018 and 2020.
The agreement sees 25 per cent of EU fishing boats’ current allowances in UK waters being transferred back to the UK over the next five and a half years – even though the UK had originally demanded 60 per cent.
When asked how the local fishing industry had reacted to the Brexit deal - which took months of negotiations - Mr Portus said: “I had to share their disappointment.
“First of all that it wasn’t all that they had wished for particularly in terms of the amount of quotas that they are going to receive.
“The new zones are not based on what we call zonal attachment (an EU approach which aims to better reflect where the fish live) they are a fudge.
“More than they had under the common fisheries policy of a number of species - but primarily mackerel and herring which are high volume low value fish - have been added to the inventory for the UK, but the high value stocks the Dover Sole, the Plaice, the Anglerfish very small amounts have been taken away from the EU and added for the UK fishermen.
“They are disappointed that with that they should have got an extra sixty per cent. They got 25 per cent and that’s by value rather than the volumes.”
“The volumes are greater as the Prime Minister has made great store about but that doesn’t mean the income for the fishermen will increase greatly so disappointment for the quotas.
“As far as the 12 mile limit is concerned we will still have French and Belgian fishermen inside our coastal waters around Devon and Cornwall and even up the Bristol Channel.
“That’s unhelpful, we’d hoped to get rid of that.
“Particularly France and Belgium they fish a lot of time in our inshore waters in Devon and Cornwall.
“Fishermen, particularly when they have to steam past French fishermen and Belgian fishermen to get to the stocks that they’re allowed to catch, and they know that those French and Belgians are filling up with all the opportunities that they’ve got under relative stability as well.
“There’s a lot of disappointment in our fishing communities at the moment.”
In 2019 British fishing vessels caught 502,000 tonnes of fish – or £850 million worth in UK waters and 100,000 tonnes of fish or £106 million in EU waters.
Danish, Dutch and French fishing vessels are said to be particularly dependent on fish caught in UK waters – each catching 100,000 tonnes worth a year.
For official UK Government information about the Brexit deal click here
For official UK Government advice to fisheries businesses click here