Industry shock - NUTFA to close!

Let's just give this disastrous news further context.  Of the entire UK fishing industry, 80% fish from boats, over 4,000 in total, that are less than 33ft long (10m). A huge number of those are worked singlehanded, a handful from large ports like Newlyn and Peterhead but the vast majority from tiny harbours, coves and even beaches around the entire UK coastline.

Just a few of the handline fleet fishing for mackerel off Lands End in 1981.

Many producer organisations, like the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation and the South West Handline Association, were created back in the 1970s to fight for and protect the livelihood of inshore fishermen. 

Almost the entire Scottish pelagic fleet anchored in Mounts Bay, 1980.

In the case of those two, both were formed during a time when a huge fleet of mid-water boats, the UK's biggest trawlers and the entire fleet of Scottish purse seiners fished for mackerel in the Western Approaches - mackerel being the mainstay of inshore fishermen for a huge number of boats from Weymouth to Milford Haven at the time.

Inshore fishermen were fighting for an exclusive 12 mile limit back in the 1970s - that can, one of many that Jerry mentions, despite all the plaititudes of Brexit when the likes of Gove promised fishermen that "we're going to take back control" is STILL being kicked down the road.

When Jerry Percy, founder of NURFA says, as in his statement below, 

"I think it is a tragedy that 60% of the fleet have been treated so shabbily by administrations going back decades. Ignoring the fleet has resulted in a lack of fish on the inshore grounds, ineffective management of larger vessels and the deafening sound of cans being kicked further down the road, such as the unacceptable delay in controlling the ravages of the fly-seine fleet in the Channel"

So now we have a situation where, as he points out, the very existence of the industry in the country is in danger of a free-fall into decline. The main reason is the inability to attract new recruits - traditionally many of these would come into the industry via the family or friend's boats - and more often than not starting before tey were even in their teens - now you cannot step aboard the smallest boat in the fleet with mandatory courses and aged 16. Many boats over 10m in the fleet are crewed almost exclusively by migrant crews on temporary contracts. Who and how are the skills needed to go out and catch fish going to be passed on to? Go to your local or even university library, you won't find a single book on how to be an 'inshore fisherman' - they just don't exist.

Obviously, external forces are dictating change to many industries like fishing; but where is the protection for the way of life? - the very thing that millions holiday for, or visit to write about or capture on canvas or film? The 2012 prediction recounted by Jerry is steaming towards us as fast as a 1700hp fly-seiner. Just two over 10m crabbers in the southwest work over 12,000 pots between them, the affect on shell-fishermen working the inshore grounds has never been more under threat.

No-one has fought harder or more passionately than Jerry for the cause of an industry faced with threats to its very existence coming from every conceivable quarter, be it totally disproportionate and ill-conceived legislation on grounds of physical health or vessel safety to fish stock quotas that also disproportionately punish fisherman who catch less in a year than a single big boat catches in a single haul. Without NUTFA, the adage, 'divide and rule' will never have been more apt.

Here is Jerry's NUTFA closure announcement in full.

NUTFA was the only UK organisation specifically dedicated to the support, survival and development of the Under Ten Metre Fleet.

The NUTFA Team would like to thank all those who have put their trust in us to achieve all our aims for a viable and profitable under ten sector.

NUTFA is a non-profit making organisation and represents the under 10m and non-sector at local, UK and EU levels, defending their rights and fighting for their future.

NUTFA represents all under ten sectors, quota and non quota, trawlers and netters, liners, shell fishermen and all other licensed fishermen trying to make a living from the sea.

UK and European fishing politics has been dominated for too long by the interests of the over ten sector, NUTFA represents the interests of the under ten sector at Local, Advisory Council (AC), European Commission and Parliament meetings as well as continuing to press for fairer recognition and a better deal from DEFRA and the MMO.

Currently working tirelessly through the challenges of the uncertainty of the impact of Brexit and the navigating the challenges that will be faced by fishermen from 2021 onwards.

NUTFA, born from a need to right the wrongs of quota allocation, now fights for everyone within the sector on every issue that might affect them.

Offering advice and assistance for fishermen on a vast range of issues including hand holding with paperwork and advice on grants and entitlements. More recently NUTFA have set up a law clinic, with assistance from fisheries lawyers across the UK who volunteer time and experience, to assist fishermen with challenges they face with regulatory compliance and enforcement issues.