For Sale - "Orion" SS 273

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For Sale "Orion" SS 273

Judicial Review - Quota distribution rules

At the close of the In advance of the start on 1st May of Judicial Review proceedings in the Royal Courts of Justice, Jim Portus, Chairman of the UK Association of Fish Producer Organisations (UKAFPO), made the following statement:  

"I reiterate that this Judicial Review action is about the decision of Defra Minister, Richard Benyon, to step outside the UK fish quotas distribution rules methodology that haves been established, used and understood by and with the consent of the whole industry since 1999.  Since that year, Fixed Quota Allocation units (FQAs) have been attached to fishing licences, traded and subjected to taxation as business assets." 

"Indeed, since 1983 the UK fishing industry has not made one investment decision that was not guided by government and its obligations under the common fisheries policy. That is why we must have the same certainty and stability of opportunity within the UK management system as is required by the CFP and is enjoyed by fishermen in other Member States.“  

The case was not about withholding fishing quotas from inshore fishermen, nor was it about who owns the quotas, although some observers made that erroneous assumption.


We look forward to engaging promptly with officials at MMO as we are keen to re-establish the meetings and consultations so necessary to achieve efficient and effective use of all opportunities of quota and non-quota resources. 

"I am pleased to report that only a few days before the case, the English Producer Organisations met with under 10m fishermen thanks to the work of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO). We made good progress and we all agreed that co-operation can enable those under 10s who need quota to obtain it promptly and affordably."

"We have been advised by our lawyers that we can expect to wait up to 6 weeks before the judgement is handed down."

Jim Portus. Chairman UKAFPO. Monday, 6th May 29 April 2013.

Conference calls for more economic evidence to influence fisheries' policy makers

The Director-General of DG Mare, European Commission has revealed economists within the EC are finally winning the argument that policy decisions affecting European fisheries need to be based as much on economic evidence as they are on biological concerns.

Lowri Evans said policy makers need to view the fishing industry as an area where many more jobs can be created and profitability improved. She said the economic and social benefits of having a thriving fishing industry should be given just as much consideration as the biology of European fisheries.

And she issued a rallying call to academics, scientists and economists to work with the European Commission to ensure they had the best possible data and analysis available to help them make positive policy reform to help the fishing industry grow.

Speaking at the 21st European Association of Fisheries Economists (EAFE) conference Ms Evans said: "We need to better understand the economics of the fishing sector.

"In the past we were traditionally focused on the biology of fisheries - but sticking to pure biology has its limitations as fishing is an economic activity. The fishing sector must be treated like all other sectors in policy terms, which we can particularly see in this period of economic recession. The context we are working in now is one of enhancing jobs and growth, just as in any other sector of the economy. We are pushing for more jobs and more growth in the fishing sector. But we cannot make policy in a vacuum."

"We need an enormous amount of collaboration with scientists and academia to make sure we have the best possible fact and evidence based analysis available to our policy makers. Each reform proposal we discuss should be accompanied by data on what impact it would have not just on stocks but also on jobs, income and the profitability of the sector as a whole. We want to improve what we are doing, and we need our scientists, economists and academia to provide that research."

Ms Evans told the conference, which was organised by Seafish and is being held at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, there were many areas where large amounts of economic research was needed to improve fishing related policy.

She said: "If you look at the issue of over-capacity - we have member states saying to us 'I haven't got over-capacity but there is general over-capacity, although it's my neighbour's problem'. We are at the beginning of breaking that down, but there is still a lot of fog around the issue of capacity management. We need people doing the relevant research to give us the fact based evidence in terms of what the policy should be for the future."

Ms Evans said she wanted to see research carried out on how fishing subsidies impact the fishing sector, and how fishing sustainability levels change the profitability of differing fish sectors.

She said she also wanted to see much greater research carried out on the subject of fishing quotas.

She said: "We are winning the political argument that the setting to TACs and quotas should be science based, and we are trying to make sure that the policy and the implementation of the policy is rooted in a wide base of both social and economic data and that it also relates to the jobs dimension.

"We need a lot more analysis in the areas of how members distribute their quota allocations, as even though this is member state business, it is a key economic and social variable. We want to know how they allocate to small scale fleets compared to large scale fleets? We want to know who benefits in terms of jobs; who gets these jobs and how well paid they are? We also need to know how quota allocation choices can affect incentives and fishing behaviours, for example, in terms of discards."

She added: "It is very important that we move away from having our focus purely on catch, but look also at areas including production and marketing. We want to improve the attractiveness of the sector to bring more young people in. And we will continue the focus on the sustainable development of fishery dependent areas."

Ms Evans said more had to be done to support micro projects, where small numbers of jobs were being created in fishing related communities through innovative business ventures.

She gave examples of a small project in Denmark where four new jobs had been created by the production of a new generation of food made from seaweed, and of a project in Galicia, Spain, where 27 shellfish gatherers had come together to develop new products based on their collection of goose barnacles.

She added: "Job promotion and job growth can come from lots of areas. We know the fishing industry can be suspicious of us, but we are not about to kill the industry. And I hope we can continue the collaboration we have had with EAFE with a view to collectively helping the fishing industry in Europe grow."

Hazel Curtis, Chief Economist at Seafish and President of EAFE, welcomed Ms Evans' keynote address at the conference - which had the theme 'Securing the future: Implementing reform in European Fisheries.

She said: "It is great to hear directly from the Commission exactly what their priorities are. It is good to know the importance they put on having an understanding of the economics of fishing. Getting good outcomes from fishing management means you have to understand the people running the businesses, and how they make their business decisions as fishing is an economic activity. You cannot just understand the fish - you have to understand the fishermen."

She added: "It is good to know that the analysis we are conducting is finding its way into political discussions, and to have clear statements about the policies that need more economic information.

"We are also delighted Ms Evans has said the Commission hopes to continue and to grow its association with EAFE."

Reliance III - running away from North Sea cod - part II

Not the most comfortable ridfe to work - imagine steaming for 62 hours in this weather - even sleeping is hard work!


Making the decision to fish at Rockall in order to avoid catching cod is not taken lightly. For starters just getting there involves a steam of over 60 hours - a round trip of nearly 6 days without a fish being caught - so the return in terms of the value of fish has to justify the long steam and the fuel consumed. Haddock, monk and squid are the three main species available to the boats who fish at the Rock.

Weather is a real issue fishing Rockall - with the prevailing winds from the west - if the weather is extreme it is to far to risk running home in huge following seas - and dodging requires heading for deeperwater off the bank - going west! - next stop Newfoundland or Iceland!

A reminder of just how bad it can get can be seen here with these two Spanish longliners.

Yet another award for Newlyn skipper Michael Nowell's rugby playing son!

Exeter Chief's rising young star Jack Nowell being presented the SW Comms Young Player of the Year award - well done Newlyn boy Jack!

After the Bank Holiday weekend, a rush of boats land to the market - end- to end with fish.

Poetry in motion, these days the grading machine makes lught work of bulk fish...

and with the amount being caught by the bigger boats in the fleet...

speed is of the essence...

as the fish are graded on the way down the flip conveyor - the name is derived from an obvouis source...

the biggest boats in the fleet like the St George...

and the Cornishman...

while inshore boats like the hand line boat, Sea Spary make a landing of glistening pollack...

and the Tracey Claire unloads another top-drawer haul...

closely watched

shining bright, the eyes of the Govenek of Ladram's hake from the port's biggest gill netter

and right on topic, there's still plenty of bug cod on the ground...

almost the Irish Flag!....

the flashing blade of skipper Smith in action...

one yacht up on the hard, time for a hull check and a few jobs like anti-fouling and replacing anodes...

a night's rest for the inshore traweer

not so for the Crystal Sea II which judging by the state of the trawl on the quay will be stuck in to the mending needles!...

familiar name spotted in port again!

Spain ordered to ‘pay back’ mackerel as result of overfishing

Spain will see its mackerel quota cut over the next 11 years as a result of having exceeded its total allowable catch in 2009.

The European commission said Spain’s mackerel quota will be cut by 65,429 metric tons over the next 11 years, or by 2023, as a result of the overfishing.

The decision follows a “detailed investigation” into Spain’s true catch levels, said the commission.

“The commission had serious doubts about the true levels of mackerel fishing registered in Spain in 2009, following inconsistencies between the data collected regarding catches and the sales of mackerel,” it said.

The decision was adopted under the EU’s Fisheries Control Regulation.

“When overshooting happens, the damage done to the stocks must be repaired,” said the EU’s fisheries and maritime affairs commissioner, Maria Damanaki. “This should happen, whenever possible, without ruining fishermen, in particular those who complied with the rules.”

Beyond today’s decision, the commission said it is “cooperating closely” with the Spanish administration to put in place the mechanisms to prevent such overfishing from happening again.

Last July the EU and Spain agreed on an “action plan” to bolster control measures and catch registration in particular. This plan is now in its first phase of implementation. 

 Story courtesy of undercurrent news web site.