The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) says the scheme, which will be overseen in the South West by one of three new EU-funded liaison officers, will keep the inshore fishing fleet afloat. But neither the national voice for small fishermen nor the region's main fish producer organisation have shown any enthusiasm for the project, describing it as "destabilising" and "tinkering". The National Under Ten Fishermen's Association (NUTFA), based in Ivybridge, represents small operators which it claims make up 75 per cent of the active national fleet but receive just 4 per cent of the available quotas. It says Defra is talking about "top-slicing" the producer groups' quotas by about 3 per cent and transferring up to 80 per cent of unused quotas to the new co-operatives. Chairman Dave Cuthbert argues that "tinkering" will not give smaller groups the "critical mass of fish" to become "a credible voice" and called for a national under-ten-metre inshore producer association. "We have toured around the country and there is not a vast amount of support for this – there is a need for a critical mass of fish not quotas scattered around the country," he added.
The pilots are part of the Government's response to a consultation on reforming the management of the inshore fleet, which was virtually unregulated up until 2006. Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon said the inshore fishing industry was being "stifled" by an outdated system and had to be fixed. "To survive, fishermen must become more profitable and we think the answer is giving them greater control over how they fish and market their catches," he said. "They've asked us to test options, and that's what these pilot projects are all about." Jim Portus, chief executive of the South West Fish Producers' Organisation – one of the groups set to lose quota – said the scheme was "robbing Peter to pay Paul". He said it was "patently unfair" that quotas in England be put into a pot accessible by smaller boats from places such as Scotland and Wales, adding: "This whole announcement is destabilising and doesn't solve anything but just puts more confusion into the mix."
A Defra spokesperson said: “This scheme to support our fishing fleet is only being run for English fishermen and there are no plans to take quota from English fishermen and give it to other nations.” St Ives MP Andrew George, whose constituency includes Newlyn, home to the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, said the scheme would be "good for the industry, good for some of the lowest-impact fishing methods, good for the economy of our coves and the sustainability of our fishing stocks."
Story courtesy of ThisisCornwall.
