Galician boats of British pavilion will be able to continue fishing after "Brexit"
London says it will maintain rights and license conditions to operate in its waters
They are Galicians, but they sail through the waters waving the flag of the Union Jack. They disguise their ships (80 in particular) with British veils to fish in the fishing grounds of Gran Sol and the North Atlantic, where the European Union has limited entry to the Spanish fleet, hungry for quotas. In Galicia they are known shipowners in the ports of Vigo, O Morrazo, Burela, Celeiro or A Coruña, but for their Anglo-Saxon competitors they are pirates who, instead of raiding and looting in the old way, have adopted the strange habit of paying licenses. and taxes to the authorities of the United Kingdom to be able to fish with Galician staff in their territorial waters. And the British fishermen want them out of their seas. With the Brexit they have seen a golden opportunity to expel them and put an end to quota-hopping , as they have called this supposed pillage of their fishing resources. Despite the enormous pressure they have exerted on the Government of Theresa May, the negotiating team of the prime minister is not about the task of taking up arms against the twenty-seven to satisfy historical accountability of her fleet. Not even if the United Kingdom leaves the EU on March 29, 2019 without an amicable divorce agreement.
THE AGREEMENT:
Legal security to continue working. According to the latest working documents of Downing Street, the British Government would be willing to offer legal security to the Galician ships of the British flag to continue fishing after Brexit . "There will be no changes in the rights and responsibilities of vessels registered in the United Kingdom that fish in British waters. They will continue to abide by the respective legislation and the license conditions, including the linked economic criteria ", explained in those documents, without clarifying whether they will continue to issue new permits in the future.
FIRST QUESTIONS:
What quotas will there be? Can they disembark in Galicia? Ships will be exposed to the arbitrary decision of the British fishing authorities. "We will communicate to the interested parties what their corresponding allocation will be," the document suggests. On the disembarkation in the Galician ports, in the absence of an agreement on Brexit , the EU will close the doors: "There will be no automatic access for British flag vessels to Community or third-country waters (...) British flag will no longer have automatic right to land fish in any EU port" And it will also be vice versa. So the Galician ships that work in the Falklands will have to look for alternative fishing grounds if the EU and the United Kingdom do not extend a truce.
MARKETING:
The same standards. The United Kingdom expects a left hand from Brussels regarding the commercialisation of fishery products and the mutual access of vessels to ports on both sides of the English Channel, upon notification. London is willing, if it were not possible to close a global agreement, to submit to the same rules of EU control and labeling: "The standards will remain the same, including those that regulate quality, size, weight, packaging, presentation, labeling and minimum sizes of commercialisation ", they assure.
THE EXPORT:
Same certificates. British and EU exporters must request a catch certificate detailing all the information required by the EU today: name of the species, date, method of capture and conservation ... The document should be sent to the competent Port Health Authority to be checked at least three days before the estimated date of arrival at port. Despite the anticipation of the change of rules, the British presage a great impact on supply chains: "Trade is vital, including for aquaculture and the processing sector, so it is important that our new fishing regime allows the industry commercial with the current and new markets". The EU has made it clear that the exit will have a cost. There will be no exchanges if mutual access to the waters is not guaranteed.
Translated by Google from LavozdeGalicia
Showing posts with label Spanish fishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spanish fishing. Show all posts
Friday, 26 October 2018
Sunday, 25 March 2018
How will UK fleet of 'Flag of Convenience' vessels fair during the Brexit transition period and after Brexit?
Leaving Newlyn after a token landing of fish on the market one day after the Brexit Transition deal with the EU was announced. The 'English' flag of convenience trawler, Sanamedio makes her way slowly out to sea as the crew stow her deck gear.
 |
| FV Sanamedio leaving Newlyn at high water. |
Her AIS track shows her route in, the 12 hours she was stationary in port and then steaming back out West again...
where 24 hours later she was fishing west of the Scillys, south of the Republic of Ireland...
Between them, she and the UK flagged vessels catch millions of pounds of fish every year, precious little of which is landed directly to UK fishing ports but is transported back to their 'home' (sic) ports mainly in Spain and Holland. Statistically, these vessels, the income they create directly and the subsequent income they generate indirectly and the jobs that they directly and indirectly support are all included in UK GDP figures.
Just how real is this financial loss to UK fishing communities?
The UK missed out from this one vessel alone on the following potential economic benefit had the fish been landed and marketed for onward processing in the UK – and these are all figures based on UK Govternment accepted statistics approved by SEAFISH. Rupert Evelyn covered this story back in October 2017 for ITN News.
In 2015 she declared landings to the value of £1,606,284 of UK Quota Species only)
Of this she declared landings of £89,574 into the UK
 |
| Extract from the Sunday Times |
From second homes....
This has parallels in Cornwall where, in some villages (like Mousehole) the number of holiday or second homes is well over 50% and more like 80%. All these properties were once locally owned and then sold, inevitably to the person who paid the highest price and in a capitalist society like ours, without state intervention more often than not that is someone from 'up country'.
to 'slipper skippers'...
Arguably, where the UK went wrong was when Defra allowed fishermen to sell those licences to fish - inevitably many end up being owned by ever bigger owners and inevitably into the hands of foreign or multinational companies as the right to buy access to fish increases in value and becomes a tradable commodity in its own right and, as the industry gets to grips fishing sustainably at every level, that value will increase in hugely to match its long-term worth.
What benefit to the UK economy do these boats actually present?
 |
| Just one of around 20 boxes of fish landed by the Sanamedio this morning. |
The Sanamedio landed enough fish to, approximately, cover the cost of her landing dues. 99% of her catch went straight into the back of a lorry destined for Spain.
Defra helpfully explains all on its website:
The Economic Link
From 1 January 1999 all UK registered fishing vessels over 10 metres in overall length and landing 2 tonnes or more of quota stocks have had to demonstrate an economic link with fishing communities in the UK. This licence condition was introduced to ensure that British coastal communities dependent on fisheries and related industries derived economic benefit from vessels fishing against UK quotas.
The Economic Link is not ‘a loophole’ as has been reported.
While not as visible as a landing into a UK port, each will have had to demonstrate a valid link benefit to the UK from its activity in some form to stay registered. They may have demonstrated this link by:
- Option A: landing at least 50% by weight of the vessel’s catch of quota stocks into the UK
- Option B: employing a crew of whom at least 50% are normally resident in a UK coastal area
- Option C: incurring a significant level of operating expenditure in the UK for goods and services provided in UK coastal areas
- Option D: demonstrating an economic link by other means (including combinations of the above) providing sufficient benefit to populations dependent on fisheries and related industries.
MMO actions relating to vessel ownership
Media which reported on an ‘investigation’ did not check their facts directly with the MMO. The MMO is not carrying out an investigation relating to foreign ownership of UK fishing vessels.
Our fisheries management work includes periodic review of the activities of vessels which take part in the Economic Link scheme.
We also recently wrote to all Fish Producer Organisations to ensure ongoing compliance with regulation (EC) 1379/2013. Fish Producer Organisations were established under the Common Fisheries Policy to enable groups of fishermen to market the fish they catch, and manage their own quota allocations.
The vessel lists published on our website include details of all UK registered fishing vessels and whether they are a member of a PO. Not all fishing vessels are members of POs.
Fish imports and exports
Chapter 4 of our annual fisheries statistics covers trade in fisheries products. The most commonly imported fish from the EU in 2015 was salmon. The most commonly exported fish to EU countries was mackerel.
Other market data may be available from Seafish.
Access by other vessels to UK waters
Historical fishing rights to access UK waters are outlined in a document on the EC website.
Employment and tax issues post Brexit:
When we become a Coastal State after Brexit whenever that may be and extend our offshore limits, will fishermen on foreign vessels require a work permit to fish inside the new British limit. Currently, they require a work permit to work on vessels inside the 12 mile limit or within the 12 miles if they are non EU citizens?
Also, will foreign vessels themselves will technically be fishing in the UK, so will they be liable for paying tax similar to what Amazon, Google and Facebook have been forced to pay even though they will be landing in a different country?
Employment and tax issues post Brexit:
When we become a Coastal State after Brexit whenever that may be and extend our offshore limits, will fishermen on foreign vessels require a work permit to fish inside the new British limit. Currently, they require a work permit to work on vessels inside the 12 mile limit or within the 12 miles if they are non EU citizens?
Also, will foreign vessels themselves will technically be fishing in the UK, so will they be liable for paying tax similar to what Amazon, Google and Facebook have been forced to pay even though they will be landing in a different country?
Monday, 28 January 2013
Bad weather? - even the Spaniards are dodging!!
The above tweet only just hints at just the sea conditions in the South Western Approaches and the West coast of Ireland over the last twenty four hours...
Here, the weather conditions at buoy 62107, the Sevenstones Lightship off Land's End - the wave heights are in feet...
or the K1 buoy well south west of Ireland and Cornwall...
while at Rockall the pressure and wave height have dropped rapidly to a mere 26 feet!...
further south and way west of Ireland on the treacherous Porcupine Bank the wave height topped an incredible 45 feet earlier today - and the wind has barely exceeded 50 knots!...
This video was shot some years ago aboard a Spanish long liner working at Rockall - and shows the FV MAR AZUL call sign MQSL8 filmed from FV TROITA call sign MQSR8 in very rough seas - the conditions are extreme and are probably a match for the wave heights currently being recorded around the western coasts of the UK and Ireland! Undoubtedly, there area number of these vessels working on the Rockall and Porcupine Banks as you read this!
Friday, 25 January 2013
How Behavioral Economics Could Save Both the Fishing Industry and the Oceans
Here's an interesting take on fisheries management from the Harvard Review - through incentivising the fishing communities around the globe.
It's frightening enough that 87% of the world's assessed fisheries are fully or over-exploited. But it is even scarier to consider how little we know about the condition of most of the world's fisheries, because four-fifths of them have never been scientifically assessed. A recent study in the journal Science is providing fresh insights into thousands of fisheries where data has not been previously available. These "data poor" fisheries make up 80% of the world's catch — and many are on the brink of collapse.
Despite the dire news, there is a bright spot in the study. The authors conclude that the ocean is nowhere near a lost cause and with the right management tools, the abundance of fish could increase by 56%. In some places, the study says, fisheries yields could more than double.
This isn't just a big deal for the fish. As the authors of the Science study write, "When sustainably managed, marine fisheries provide food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people worldwide." So what's the key to seeing such a rebound become reality? An approach to overseeing fisheries known as rights-based management, or catch shares.
Over the past decade, catch shares have taken hold in U.S. waters, ensuring the sustainability of about 65% of the fish landed in the United States. This is the greatest unknown policy success of our time. Don't take my word for it — I work for the Environmental Defense Fund, a policy shop that has long championed the approach. Instead, consider the facts that helped lead the authors of the Science article draw that same optimistic conclusion.
Catch shares are a market-based management tool used in commercial fishing that, coupled with catch limits, have been successful in rebuilding fish populations while improving the efficiency and business of fishing. After decades of failed regulatory regimes, catch shares are working for fish and for fishermen. What's unfolding before our eyes is a global behavioral economics study — one that's delivering major benefits to people around the world.
The Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery, for example, was on the brink of collapse in the early part of the last decade. Fishermen were limited to 52-day seasons that were getting shorter every year. The shortened seasons, an attempt to counter overfishing, hurt fishermen economically and created unsafe "derbies" that often forced them to race into storms like the boats in The Deadliest Catch.
This short window also meant that all of the red snapper were being caught and brought to market at the same time, creating a glut that crashed prices. Many fishermen couldn't even cover the cost of their trip to sea after selling their fish.
A decade ago, the Environmental Defense Fund began working with a group of commercial red snapper fishermen on a new and better way of doing business. Together, we set out to propose a catch share management system for snapper. Simply put, fishermen would be allocated shares based on their catch history (the average amount of fish in pounds they landed each year) of the scientifically determined amount of fish allowed for catch each year (the catch limit). Fishermen could then fish within their shares, or quota, all year long, giving them the flexibility they needed to run their businesses.
This meant no more fishing in dangerously bad weather and no more market gluts. For the consumer, it meant fresh red snapper all year long.
After five years of catch share management, the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery is growing because fishermen are staying within the scientific limits. Boats that once suffered from ever-shortening seasons have seen a 60% increase in the amount of fish they are allowed to catch. Having a percentage share of the fishery means fishermen have a built-in incentive to husband the resource, so it will continue to grow.
Another major problem facing commercial fishing is known as discards — a euphemism for the tragic waste of tons of fish thrown overboard dead. Under the Gulf red snapper catch share system, discards have decreased by half. Fewer wasted fish, along with a fishery that stays within its limits, are two keys to rebuilding the resource. On the business end, fishermen have seen a 25% increase in the price they get for their landings of red snapper. The economic incentives for sustainability are clear. Creating a responsible commercial fishery does not have to be at odds with the economic goals of fishermen. In fact, it can make those goals easier to reach.
The success of red snapper fishermen led to the creation of catch share programs for other species and in other regions — grouper and tilefish in the Gulf of Mexico, groundfish in the waters off Northern California, Oregon and Washington State — resulting in similarly impressive increases in revenue and decreases in waste.
In New England, a form of a catch share also produced promising results for groundfish. From 2009 to 2011, groundfish landings were up six percent, revenues for fishermen were up 18% and discards were reduced by two-thirds. But all is not well there. Warming Atlantic waters are leading to migration changes and increases in predator species that prey on cod and compete for food. Declining cod populations led the Obama administration to issue a Disaster Declaration to provide needed relief to fishermen. In New England, catch shares have kept a difficult situation from becoming even worse.
Now the idea is catching on elsewhere. The European Commission has proposed adoption of "Transferable Fishing Concessions," a European version of catch shares that would increase fishermen's incentives to comply with science-based catch limits. And earlier this year, the World Bank announced a global partnership for oceans that includes more than 100 other organizations — governments, private sector interests and NGOs, including the Environmental Defense Fund — to address issues related to overfishing, pollution, and habitat in the world's oceans. Rights-based management programs like catch shares will be a major part of that strategy to address overfishing. At the same time, they will contribute to the health of the global economy; the World Bank estimates that failed fisheries management contributes economic losses of $50 billion annually.
As an experiment in behavioral economics, the results are striking. A look at the varying fisheries management approaches around the world shows that the industry behaves in very different ways under different sets of rules. Overfishing is not a given. The key to solving it is to take human behavior into account, giving the industry more rather than fewer rights and responsibilities, and developing financial rewards for stewardship of the resource. Catch shares accomplish all of this.
It's all too easy to lose hope that human beings will ever rise to the challenge of solving the global environmental crises we face. But we should not despair. The catch shares success story demonstrates that people will respond when we get the right market signals in place.
In other words, we don't have to change human nature to save the seas. We just have to change human incentives. And catch shares give us a very effective way to do just that.
How Behavioral Economics Could Save Both the Fishing Industry and the Oceansby Eric Pooley.
Further insight into how these more proactive fishing community based approaches can be seen here on the Aquamind web site - a fishing consultancy largely suppoprted by a team of very experienced fishermen.
It's frightening enough that 87% of the world's assessed fisheries are fully or over-exploited. But it is even scarier to consider how little we know about the condition of most of the world's fisheries, because four-fifths of them have never been scientifically assessed. A recent study in the journal Science is providing fresh insights into thousands of fisheries where data has not been previously available. These "data poor" fisheries make up 80% of the world's catch — and many are on the brink of collapse.
Despite the dire news, there is a bright spot in the study. The authors conclude that the ocean is nowhere near a lost cause and with the right management tools, the abundance of fish could increase by 56%. In some places, the study says, fisheries yields could more than double.
This isn't just a big deal for the fish. As the authors of the Science study write, "When sustainably managed, marine fisheries provide food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people worldwide." So what's the key to seeing such a rebound become reality? An approach to overseeing fisheries known as rights-based management, or catch shares.
Over the past decade, catch shares have taken hold in U.S. waters, ensuring the sustainability of about 65% of the fish landed in the United States. This is the greatest unknown policy success of our time. Don't take my word for it — I work for the Environmental Defense Fund, a policy shop that has long championed the approach. Instead, consider the facts that helped lead the authors of the Science article draw that same optimistic conclusion.
Catch shares are a market-based management tool used in commercial fishing that, coupled with catch limits, have been successful in rebuilding fish populations while improving the efficiency and business of fishing. After decades of failed regulatory regimes, catch shares are working for fish and for fishermen. What's unfolding before our eyes is a global behavioral economics study — one that's delivering major benefits to people around the world.
The Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery, for example, was on the brink of collapse in the early part of the last decade. Fishermen were limited to 52-day seasons that were getting shorter every year. The shortened seasons, an attempt to counter overfishing, hurt fishermen economically and created unsafe "derbies" that often forced them to race into storms like the boats in The Deadliest Catch.
This short window also meant that all of the red snapper were being caught and brought to market at the same time, creating a glut that crashed prices. Many fishermen couldn't even cover the cost of their trip to sea after selling their fish.
A decade ago, the Environmental Defense Fund began working with a group of commercial red snapper fishermen on a new and better way of doing business. Together, we set out to propose a catch share management system for snapper. Simply put, fishermen would be allocated shares based on their catch history (the average amount of fish in pounds they landed each year) of the scientifically determined amount of fish allowed for catch each year (the catch limit). Fishermen could then fish within their shares, or quota, all year long, giving them the flexibility they needed to run their businesses.
This meant no more fishing in dangerously bad weather and no more market gluts. For the consumer, it meant fresh red snapper all year long.
After five years of catch share management, the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery is growing because fishermen are staying within the scientific limits. Boats that once suffered from ever-shortening seasons have seen a 60% increase in the amount of fish they are allowed to catch. Having a percentage share of the fishery means fishermen have a built-in incentive to husband the resource, so it will continue to grow.
Another major problem facing commercial fishing is known as discards — a euphemism for the tragic waste of tons of fish thrown overboard dead. Under the Gulf red snapper catch share system, discards have decreased by half. Fewer wasted fish, along with a fishery that stays within its limits, are two keys to rebuilding the resource. On the business end, fishermen have seen a 25% increase in the price they get for their landings of red snapper. The economic incentives for sustainability are clear. Creating a responsible commercial fishery does not have to be at odds with the economic goals of fishermen. In fact, it can make those goals easier to reach.
The success of red snapper fishermen led to the creation of catch share programs for other species and in other regions — grouper and tilefish in the Gulf of Mexico, groundfish in the waters off Northern California, Oregon and Washington State — resulting in similarly impressive increases in revenue and decreases in waste.
In New England, a form of a catch share also produced promising results for groundfish. From 2009 to 2011, groundfish landings were up six percent, revenues for fishermen were up 18% and discards were reduced by two-thirds. But all is not well there. Warming Atlantic waters are leading to migration changes and increases in predator species that prey on cod and compete for food. Declining cod populations led the Obama administration to issue a Disaster Declaration to provide needed relief to fishermen. In New England, catch shares have kept a difficult situation from becoming even worse.
Now the idea is catching on elsewhere. The European Commission has proposed adoption of "Transferable Fishing Concessions," a European version of catch shares that would increase fishermen's incentives to comply with science-based catch limits. And earlier this year, the World Bank announced a global partnership for oceans that includes more than 100 other organizations — governments, private sector interests and NGOs, including the Environmental Defense Fund — to address issues related to overfishing, pollution, and habitat in the world's oceans. Rights-based management programs like catch shares will be a major part of that strategy to address overfishing. At the same time, they will contribute to the health of the global economy; the World Bank estimates that failed fisheries management contributes economic losses of $50 billion annually.
As an experiment in behavioral economics, the results are striking. A look at the varying fisheries management approaches around the world shows that the industry behaves in very different ways under different sets of rules. Overfishing is not a given. The key to solving it is to take human behavior into account, giving the industry more rather than fewer rights and responsibilities, and developing financial rewards for stewardship of the resource. Catch shares accomplish all of this.
It's all too easy to lose hope that human beings will ever rise to the challenge of solving the global environmental crises we face. But we should not despair. The catch shares success story demonstrates that people will respond when we get the right market signals in place.
In other words, we don't have to change human nature to save the seas. We just have to change human incentives. And catch shares give us a very effective way to do just that.
How Behavioral Economics Could Save Both the Fishing Industry and the Oceansby Eric Pooley.
Further insight into how these more proactive fishing community based approaches can be seen here on the Aquamind web site - a fishing consultancy largely suppoprted by a team of very experienced fishermen.
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