Monday morning market in Newlyn

It's not often that Newlyn plays host to two Admirals...

on a morning market with around 500 boxes of hake...

which kept auctioneer Ian on his toes as buyers battled over the best bids...

and then moved on to more prime fish like John Dory...

and Dover sole from the St Georges...

a good run of plaice...

and some decent sized monk tails to compliment the boat's trip of cuttles...

all whisked off the market floor PDQ...

the netter Ajax...

and the Britannia V filled half the market...

the 350 boxes from skipper Dwan all set for delivery...

while in the fridge a handful of late season sardines...

and a few dozen boxes of mackerel from the handliners of St Ives...

methinks market manager Mr Cripps will be glad to see the back of the black fish for which Newlyn is renowned......

insulated tubs all set for the next sardine season...

where all old yellow-wellies go eventually...

the  huge flared bow of the Galilee is more evident now, especially alongside a Cygnus 44...

Ben Loyal up on the slip...

it seems there are some issues with the starboard side gear on the Trevessa IV...

time for a lick of paint on the old pilot house...

local artist Robert Jones has some of his work in one of Newlyn's gallery shops...

which has a divers collection of fishing art and craft work...

for their coming show.

Facts4EU.org give their take on what the 'Transition Period' means for the UK fishing industry.

PART 2: UK FISHERMEN WARN WHAT

TRANSITION PERIOD MEANS

(Click here if you missed Part 1 yesterday)

Following yesterday’s Facts4EU.Org article containing our unique and original research into the EU’s effect on the UK’s fishing industry, some more key players have had conversations with us.

SPECIAL BRIEFING FOR THE ERG We have also obtained a copy of a private report on the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy which was provided to Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg last week, in his capacity as Chairman of the Conservative MP’s European Research Group (ERG). This was given to us in order to bring you a greater understanding of the seriousness of the situation.

“Failure to exempt fisheries from the Transition Period will sign the death warrant for what’s left of the British industry.”

Opening to the report to ERG, 06 March 2018

Many see a Transition Period as being highly undesirable for many reasons. In the case of the UK’s fishing industry, it could mean disaster, according to what Fishing For Leave have told us. Here is their spokesman Alan Hastings talking to us yesterday:-

“Due to the existential threat which the Transition Period and the continued submission to the EU’s disastrous Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and its failed methods presents to what's left of the British fishing industry, it is vital the government fulfils taking back control on this acid test, by not continuing or replicating the CFP AFTER we officially leave in March 2019. “The government must implement a new, bespoke, and decent independent British policy. Failure to do this will condemn another British industry to be consigned to the museum and the memory.

“This would be a second sacrifice of an industry that is symbolic of our island nation and of taking back control. It would see the Conservatives eradicated in coastal constituencies from Cornwall to NE Scotland.”

- Interview with Alan Hastings, Fishing for Leave Spokesman, 10 Mar 2018

HOW THE EU CAN 'CHOKE' THE UK’S FLEET – QUITE LEGALLY

During the Transition Period as it has been described, the UK will have no say on anything. Unless the fishing industry is specifically exempted, Britain’s fishermen will be trapped in the regime of the CFP and the EU can enact whatever changes it wants. The UK government will be powerless. These changes are likely to lead to the further erosion of the UK’s fleet.

“The EU can implement detrimental policy to cull the UK fleet which would allow the EU to claim the “surplus” resources the UK no longer had the fleet capacity to catch under the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law Of the Sea (UNCLOS) Article 62.2.

“The EU uses a quota system to manage mixed fisheries. Fishermen cannot help but catch a mix of species and are forced to discard the "wrong" species they have no quota to keep. They then have to catch more than necessary whilst attempting to find the "right" species they can keep.”

- Briefing paper for the ERG, 06 Mar 2018

This is the so-called “discard” system which is so controversial and which is closely linked to the “choke” debate. Bear with us while we explain.

Next year the EU intend to ban the discarding of fish which are caught in a mixed catch and which must be thrown back to stop the boat going over its quota on particular species. They plan to install CCTV to stop boats sifting through their mixed catch and throwing back dead fish from over-quota species.

“If a full CCTV enforced discard ban is implemented, fishing must stop on exhausting the lowest quota allocation as otherwise vessels would keep catching the species they have no quota for whilst looking for others.

“These are called 'choke species' as they choke/shut down boats, fisheries or areas, stopping vessels from catching their full allocation of quota which they must take in order to be viable.

“Government studies show that “choke species” will result in approximately 60% of the fish resources Britain is allocated going uncaught and a similar proportion of the fleet will go bankrupt as a result.”

- Briefing paper for the ERG, 06 Mar 2018

THE CATCH (-22)

If the CFP continues after March 2019, and if the UK’s waters finally become the property of the United Kingdom again after that, the UK fishing fleet will be of an insufficient size to take advantage of this, says Fishing for Leave.

The UN has an international agreement called UNCLOS – the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, which regulates fishing. Under this convention any country that doesn’t have the ability to fish its own waters to full effect must allow other countries’ boats to do so. The UK would therefore have to give foreign vessels (predominantly from the EU) access to its territorial waters.

In effect, the EU could create the conditions where the UK doesn’t have a sufficient fishing fleet to fish its own waters. By the time the UK formally leaves the EU and leaves the Transition Period, the EU would simply have the right to continue fishing in UK waters.

A classic Catch-22.

Here are the closing statements of the document which Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg and his colleagues received last week:-

IN CONCLUSION

• Fishing must be exempted from a transition or the EU will cull our fleet to claim our “surplus” resources. We must leave the CFP as of March 2019
• A clear unequivocal clause is enacted in the transition/withdrawal treaty so that all rights and obligations are stated to cease to apply as per Article 70 of the Vienna Convention
• Arrangements on shares of resources and access to waters must not be coupled to wider trade negotiations where it becomes a bartering chip
• New, bespoke, discard free UK policy is enacted so we have environmentally and economically decent policy to rejuvenate UK communities & avoid shadow dancing the CFP

We hope and pray that fishing and Britain’s coastal communities do not get mangled in the wider political context as we leave. A cheap failure on fishing will snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory and see the conservatives eradiated in coastal constituencies from Cornwall to NE Scotland when fishing is an easy beacon of success if we walk away, take back control and implement new policy.”

- Briefing paper for the ERG, 06 Mar 2018

LEAVING THE CFP WAS CONSERVATIVE POLICY FROM 2005

Finally, if you would like a fuller understanding of all the issues, here is an excellent paper written by the Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP for the Think-Tank UK2020 in November last year. This builds on considerable work that Mr Paterson has done over the years.

Back in 2005 he wrote a Conservative 'Green Paper' which was adopted by the then Leader, Michael Howard. In it, the policy clearly laid out is to leave the Common Fisheries Policy, as part of a gradual withdrawal from aspects of EU membership. You can read this report here.

It is quite possible that Mrs May is unaware of the long-standing Conservative commitment to leaving the Common Fisheries Policy of the EU. In which case, we will simply say 'You're welcome Madam'.

OBSERVATIONS

Here is what Mrs May said about fisheries in her Mansion House speech on 02 March:

“We are also leaving the Common Fisheries Policy. The UK will regain control over our domestic fisheries management rules and access to our waters.”

“But as part of our economic partnership we will want to continue to work together to manage shared stocks in a sustainable way and to agree reciprocal access to waters and a fairer allocation of fishing opportunities for the UK fishing industry.”

The first part of this is exactly right. The second part isn’t. The Prime Minister must be helped to understand that there are special circumstances surrounding the UK’s fishing industry and it must be excluded from any Transition deal.

If we had our way, there wouldn’t be a Transition deal at all of course.

We have long argued that the Transition Period is a canard. The government continues to refer to it as an ‘Implementation Period’, but whatever it is called it requires that something specific and agreed is being transitioned to, or implemented. Thus far there is no sign of anything other than it being a period where the status quo reigns but without the benefit of the UK having any say in what is done or planned by the EU.

We are grateful to Fishing For Leave and to certain politicians who provided valuable assistance in the writing of this article.

If you can help us to keep producing important journalism like this – and the article below – please donate a little something if you can.

“We deeply appreciate any inroads you can make with getting this highlighted as too many in positions of influence don’t yet get the full magnitude of the situation we are digging ourselves into.”

What Alan Hastings of Fishing for Leave said was right. We need to keep trying to get the facts and analysis out there. With your help we can keep doing this.

This story courtesy of: Facts4EU.ORG

Coastal Communities Fund - big projects need big ideas.

Details

The Coastal Communities Fund Round 5 is now open with £40 million available for spend from April 2019 to end of March 2021.

Funding goes to projects over £50,000 that will ultimately lead to regeneration and economic growth whilst directly or indirectly safeguarding and creating sustainable jobs.

Within this round 5 there are 2 separate funding rounds, each with their own timetable set out in part 7 of the guidance notes:

• a ‘fast track’ early round for revenue projects only for which some funding will be available in 2018 to 2019. Stage 1 closing date 2 April.
• the main funding round for which funding will be available from 1 April 2019. Stage 1 closing date 30 April.

Stage 1 application form

This is an expression of interest, following which we will identify projects that strongly fit the programme aim, outcome and priorities.

Applicants invited to Stage 2 will complete a fuller application form, and a business plan.

Guidance

The round 5 guidance notes cover:

• who can apply?
• funding priorities & examples
• how much can I apply for and what can the money be used for?
• application process, assessment and decision-making
• guidance for capital projects

Guidance

Guidance for Partnerships

Published 26 February 2018

Eating Blockchain The Food Chain

Blockchain technology has been heralded as the answer to a safer, fairer and more transparent food system. Many companies, from global food giants, to start-ups have begun to experiment with it. 

Although not discussed in the programme, fishermen may well want to look to the technology to use with their catch data as a means to provide, but ultimately own, the data they create.  Mobile technology could make it possible for all fishermen, no matter what size the vessel, to record and store catch data in real time - and, together, challenge the way in which stocks are assessed by being able to use collective data to better inform those that assess socks.

Emily Thomas meets some pioneers of this new technology, who think it will change the way we eat.

BBC Food Programme - The Food Chain

A generation has woken up to the fact that we are - In too Deep: The race to save our seas.

While many fish stocks around the coast of the UK are not overfished, many are stocks are fished to MSY (Maximum Sustainable Yield) - around the world the story is not quite so good, as we are now only too well aware.

Sky’s Ed Conway hears Bank of England governor, Mark Conway talks to Mr Carney, who has spoken out previously about the risks posed to the financial system by climate change and rising sea levels, said the problems were a consequence of an economic theory known as "the tragedy of the commons", whereby individuals can, left unchecked, overuse their shared resources. This is an old term stemming from the days when we, in the UK, as commoners were allowed to graze sheep and cattle on 'common' land - what we now have to understand is that our planet earth is 'common land'.

Let there be no mistake, the future of fishing is in our, the fishermens', hands. 

This not a report that seeks to sensationalise.  It is a cold, hard look at where we are now with the voices of fishermen wondering where they, and we will be in the future.

Take out 48 minutes over the weekend to watch and listen.

Sustainable Fishery Conference - 2018 - Dartington Hall.

#ISF18 Tweets

The catch in taking back control of British fishing

If the UK must 'sell out' any industry then fishing is a good industry to choose

The decline of British fishing predates membership of the EU

The workforce of a Nissan plant in Sunderland is equivalent to 60 per cent of the full-time fishing industry

The great thing about Brexit is the opportunity it offers for betrayal. The revolution must be pure and no back-sliding is permitted. Hence the increasingly hysterical tone adopted by the bravest Brexiteers. Consider, for instance, the furious rows that lie ahead when it comes to the question of the future of the British fishing fleet.

This week the European Council’s draft Brexit proposals asked for “existing reciprocal access to fishing waters” to be maintained as part of any EU-UK Brexit deal. Just look at the state — and the cheek — of that. What British prime minister worth his or her salt could possibly agree to such a demand? Once again, you see, Britain’s fishermen face the galling prospect of being sold-out by their own government. It happened, according to mythic lore, when this country first joined the European project and it will happen again now that we are leaving it.

And, to be fair, the industry and its champions have a point. Like many betrayals, this one has been hiding in plain sight. The government’s White Paper on Brexit argued that, “given the heavy reliance on UK waters of the EU fishing industry and the importance of EU waters to the UK, it is in both our interests to reach a mutually beneficial deal that works for the UK and the EU’s fishing communities”.

In her Mansion House speech May allowed that although “the UK will regain control over our domestic fisheries management rules and access to our waters” as “part of our economic partnership we will want to continue to work together to manage shared stocks in a sustainable way and to agree reciprocal access to waters”. Just in case there was any doubt, Defra’s own Brexit paper insisted that “alongside rights” the UK “will also have obligations as an independent coastal state to operate with other Coastal States on the management of shared stocks”.

The government, then, could hardly have been plainer or clearer. The UK will look to strike a deal that will reduce but not eliminate foreign vessels’ access to British waters. In return, UK boats will still be able to fish in EU waters. Granted, this is a better deal for the EU than for the UK since the value of fish caught by European boats in UK waters is at least five times greater than the value of euro-fish landed by the British fishing fleet. No wonder the fishermen are firmly of the view that no deal is considerably better than a bad deal; no wonder they also consider any deal a bad deal.

But if we must “sell-out” any industry for the sake of an easier and more prosperous post-Brexit future then fishing is a good industry to choose. Possibly, indeed, the very best one that could be selected.

It is generally accepted that joining the European project was a disaster for the British fishing industry and like many generally accepted truths this one tells only a small part of the story. The truth, astonishingly, is more complicated.

It is true that in 1948 there were almost 40,000 full-time fishermen in the United Kingdom and that the industry has declined to the extent that there are now fewer than 10,000 people earning a full-time living from fishing. Most of that decline, however, occurred before the UK even joined the European Union. In 1975 there were 17,000 fishermen, a figure that fell to 10,000 in 2003 and has since stabilised.

Onshore processing and distribution increases the importance of fishing as an industry but it is impossible to ignore the fact that a single Nissan plant in Sunderland is, as an employment matter, equal to 60 per cent of the UK full-time fishing industry. As a matter of cold, hard, brutal, fact the UK doesn’t need a fishing industry and its contribution to the nation’s economic output is, if not quite negligible, far from economically important.

The industry is important in towns such as Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Grimsby but its true significance is emotional and psychological more than it is economic. The fishing fleet speaks to Britain’s sense of itself as a maritime nation. The little boats — though many of them are actually multi-million pound vessels these days — are part of what makes us who we are; no foreigner shall dare to curb their rights of passage. The fishing-boat-bobbing seas are our seas.


In truth, however, fish are citizens of nowhere and if the fishing industry had its way there’d be markedly fewer fish in the ocean to begin with. Without government intervention, the industry would have cheerfully fished itself out of a future. Give a man a fish and he may eat for a day; agree a science-based system of quotas and he may yet fish for a lifetime.

In any case, Brexit necessarily requires compromise. Those Remainers who despair at the manner in which the government sometimes seems to have been captured by hardline Brexiteers might pause to reflect on the manner in which those same Brexit ultras are busy writing a narrative of betrayal when it comes to the fishing industry.

Far from being a betrayal, Michael Gove’s proposals for an ongoing arrangement that, while beneficial to the British fleet, still offers the continentals something of what they want should be understood as welcome evidence of Brexit pragmatism. As was the case in the 1970s, conceding on fishing allows the UK to take advantage of opportunities elsewhere in industries that are manifestly more important to this country’s prosperity than fishing. That is, in fact, almost every other industry you can think of.

This, in other words, is no time to be having your fish and eating it, and not just because doing so means there may be no more fish tomorrow anyway.

Full story courtesy of Alex Massie @alexmassie