Reflections on the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund

Today's addres from Commissioner Maria Damanaki:
Hearing on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund
European Parliament, 7 March 2012

The Fund will help deliver the ambitious objectives of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and will help fishermen in the transition towards sustainable fishing, as well as coastal communities in the diversification of their economies. The fund will finance projects that create new jobs and improve quality of life along European coasts. Red tape will be cut so that beneficiaries have easy access to financing.

This new fund will replace the existing European Fisheries Fund and a number of other instruments. The proposed envelope amounts to € 6.5 billion for the period 2014 to 2020.

"Dear Mr Chairman, dear Mr Cadec, dear Members of the Parliament, Thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the Maritime and Fisheries Fund of the future.

This fund is a key component of the fisheries reform package on which this House will adopt its position in the coming months. The new Fund is different from its predecessor in many ways. I have designed it to support the key objectives of the fisheries reform. It is designed to help us achieve environmental sustainability and also deliver the social and economic sustainability that you rightfully demand for the people working in the fishing industry.

Let me explain how. Our reform plan starts from the premise that if we go for environmental sustainability, economic and social sustainability will follow. This is not ideology but a pragmatic approach for the management of natural resources. This is true. And we have evidence: 135 million euro is the extra money that fishermen made between 2011 and 2012 because stocks were better managed than in the past. 135 million euro, ladies and gentlemen! And that amount can still increase sustainably every year, if we get the reform right. An independent body, the New Economics Foundation, reckons that every year in the EU27 the fishing industry could have an extra 1.8 billion euro - almost three times the subsidies we grant; and we could create around 83 thousand jobs – a third of the current employment in the EU fishing sector - if stocks were brought back to sustainable levels.

Reaching sustainable fishing levels can be done relatively quickly. In fact it has been done in a number of fisheries. There are 20 stocks now fished sustainably in Europe. There were only 5 in 2009. So working toward MSY is possible, but we have a long way to go. As the French Fisheries Science Association (Association Française d'Halieutique) says in a study published last week: "We cannot be satisfied by a situation where 40% of the stocks assessed are outside safe biological limits". Turning now to discards: reducing discards is also possible. Right now there are at least seventy anti-discard initiatives going on around Europe - carried out either by the fishermen, who are finding ways to fish more selectively; or by European retailers, who are delisting species from their supply whenever stocks are endangered or non-selective fishing techniques are used. My reform plan proposes a gradual phase-out and gives the industry adequate support for the change. How? First of all, fishermen will get financial support for testing more selective gears and techniques and for purchasing already tested ones.

St Ives mackerel man Simon's in the fish!

A Taste of St Ives brought almost to your door - here's a chance to see inshore fisherman Simon Rouncefield at work in St Ives Bay fishing from his punt SS170. Bet Monty Halls could have done with seeing this before his trip to Cadgwith!

Biggest Newlyn crabber ever built arrives for owners Emma and Mark.

Bearing the same port regritsration letters as the old Dom Bosco, TO (Truro), as do all the Rowse fleet, owner Mark Rowse keeps an eye on the stern.......

as the finished hull is towed to her new home in Newlyn.......

skipper-to-be Mario will be looking forward to his new workhorse being completed as soon as possible.....

which shouldn't be too long as the main shellfish season is just round the corner. Crabs, being cold blooded creatures are much more active (and therefore likely to be caught) when the water is warmed by the summer sun.


Photos courtesy of Edwin Hosking at ocean Fish.

Investing in the future - new crab boat for Newlyn

Rowse's new crabber in Toms' shipyard, Polruan.

The biggest fishing vessel to be built in the Westcountry for 20 years will be heading to her new owner today – although she does not have far to travel on her maiden trip. The 16-metre-long steel crabber was constructed at C Toms and Son boatyard at Polruan in Cornwall, on the River Fowey, for Newlyn firm Rowse Fishing Ltd. ​ 

Waiting atop the decommissioned crabber, Emma Louise, is boat's new wheelhouse which will be fitted once the hull is towed to Newlyn for fitting out.

The biggest fishing vessel to have been built in the Westcountry for the last 20 years enters the water for the first time at the Polruan Harbour.


Karen Toms, from the boatbuilding firm, said the completion of such a large vessel was a fitting tribute to the company's 90 years in the business. She said: "We have built longer boats, but in terms of her size overall, she is the largest. It's always very exciting time for us when a new boat is launched and we are celebrating our 90th anniversary this year, so it's great that we're still busy and still building boats here." 

Rowse Fishing Ltd is owned and run by husband and wife team Mark and Emma Rowse. Cornwall's fleet of crabbers is known to be particularly sustainable, catching non-vulnerable species with virtually no impact on the sea bed and little by-catch of non-targeted fish. Undersized crabs and lobsters are thrown back into the sea alive. Rowse supplies crab and lobster to both local and international markets, although most is exported to France, Spain and Portugal, which boasts a huge market for species like spider crabs, where it is considered to be a delicacy.


Sustainably fished crab from the Rowse fleet are supplied to local crab processors like M&R Crab in Newlyn.


Over the last two years, the Polruan firm has built a 15-metre steel boat which is now fishing from the Isle of Lewis, and a 12-metre scalloper for an Exmouth firm. The new boat, which has not yet been given a name, will be officially launched in Newlyn on March 31.


Story courtesy of the Western Morning News.

The Fisherman's Apprentice - Monty Halls in Cadgwith - part I

A few of the bigger boats pulled up on the beach at Cadgwith.

Marine biologist Monty Halls explores the challenges facing the British fishing industry by living and working as a traditional Cornish fisherman. In this episode he goes it alone and soon learns that making a living as an inshore fisherman is a lot harder than he thought. A bout of violent sea sickness puts the whole project in jeopardy.


Episode one last week saw Monty arrive in Cadgwith 'down on the Lizard', home to a fleet of small beach-based inshore boats looking every inch the visiting celeb. Under the wing, or should that be lobster paw of top pot man Nigel Legge,  Monty began his metamorphosis into a fisherman proper. Nigel is full time punt fisherman, one of the last withy pot makers left in the UK, part time artist and full of patience.


His charge is bewildered at first; he has eight months in which to try and prove he can make a living on his own, but keen to get stuck in and be a fisherman. As Kingfisher II skipper John 'Tonks' Tonkin says, fishing is a way of life not a job. What that means is every moment of the waking day, and at night too, is either spent thinking about the sea, being at sea, looking at the sea or listening and watching others do the same - taking stock of the weather and orientating the boat by eye are unthinking and a constant.


Diver Monty will have given many local fishermen their first glimpse of the bottom on which they shoot their gear - expect more later in the series. Talk of accidents at sea and what can go wrong make up much of the early footage - necessarily so as fishing is the number one most dangerous job in the UK.


The weekly rod fishing competition which involves many of the boats going to sea for the fun of it with all hands fishing for the biggest specimen of any fish they can catch is a part of the village's way of life. The world will become a duller and drearier place in general without such intimate activities that involve communities so closley with the very reason for their existence in the first place. Those parties at Newlyn may wish to consider the knock-on effect of allowing fish to be auctioned away from the port and losing the fish market altogether - it is a part of community life that is Newlyn and just as relevant and important as the fortnightly angling events that are celebrated in front of, and inside, the Cadgwith Cove Inn.


Look out for the next episode this Wednesday at 8pm on BBC 2. 

In Penzance, patron saint St Piran promotes piscatorial pleasure

Cornish flagged streets in Penzance herald St Piran's Day.......

as market business gets under way, prime Dovers......

razor clams......

and one less John Dory for the Imogen II to catch later this year.......

stick to the hake Ajax says Mr Nowell.......

even the waste oil is treated to an environmentally sensitive exit from the port these days......

one man and his dog walk Newlyn Green as the sun begins its daily toil.......

the intensely patriotic fish and chip shop at the top of Penzance's oldest street, Causewayhead has matching Cornish colours twixt flag and name board.

Cool Marazion in colour

One of the oldest town in the country is Marazion.......

where even the Post Office has its creative side.......

round the corner in the Market House Gallery there are some excellent examples of reasonably priced Newlyn Copper for that unusual gift......

with a strong nautical theme.......

 evident in most of the pieces......

across the road a gallery with an excellent selection of highly collectable Glynn Macey originals and prints at affordable prices inside the Out-of-the-Blue Gallery........

down the road and the Mount immediately makes its presence felt under the afternoon sun......

with plenty of beach to enjoy when the tide is still out.......

watched over by a pair of cavorting dolphins.......

the spotless sand provides one of the safest beaches in Cornwall.......

despite the screaming Northerly beeze........

giving rise to plenty of beach combing for anyone needing to collect examples of flotsam and jetsam for art groups.......

and a host of clouds to conjure flying by......

with shadows........

and patterns galore.......

and buried treasure of sorts......

make it easy to uncover all sorts of patterns......

and textures at every step........

of the cycleway.........

up the hill by Penzance Station there's fine local seafood on offer for the discerning traveller.