With legalisation at local, national and pan-European levels affecting many fishermen on a daily basis being 'kept in the loop' is more important than ever these days. A web site dedicated to following all things Common Fisheries Policy-wise should be high on any fisherman's reading list.
CFPReformwatch.eu does its best to pick up on any and every snippet of information coming out of Brussels and other relevant departments carrying the CFP tag. Forewarned is forearmed - knowledge is power - old but in the case of the hugely complex industry that fishing has become - cliches that are all too true.
What grieves the smaller and inshore fisherman most is how much of the legislation that directly affects them is down the hugely more powerful section of the Euro fleet whose boats catch or even discard more in a month than they would or could catch in a lifetime. Yet, with increasingly stark stock statistics making their way into the public domain and conciousness it is many of the smaller guys who are least able to diversify, move fishery or re-locate and have to bear the brunt of the quota cuts and other legislative mechanisms like no-take zones and protected areas.
Here's the latest response from the quota-sharing suggestion from Brussels and one from Scotland's Environment Secretary, Richard Lockhead.
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