Saturday in Newlyn

As the Britannia V landed superb morning light flooded the harbour this morning ...

showing the newly painted netting fleet like the Ocean Reaper...

and the Govenek of Ladram  off in their best colours...

even the AA looked good...

as the blue skies gave way to heavy clouds...

that began to cover the Bay, with a rainbow a sure sign that the heavens were about to open.....

which they duly did...

making the light very changeable...

but good for the blue tones...

especially Chunky's Harvest Reaper looking absolutely stunning this morning now just returned form a major refit at Nobles boatyard in Girvan...

as was PJ's Silvery Sea heading for the iceworks...

then the heaven's opened again...

which makes conditions something of a challenge for the fifty artists taking part in Newlyn Gallery's Wet Auction event this evening at the Orion Gallery...

just one of the works up for auction.

#FishyFriday, fine weather, fine fish, not so fine forecast.

Buyers banter on a relatively quiet #FishyFriday...

buying beam trawl plaice...

or a handful of hake...

delicious Dory...

or simply scrumptious sardines...

quickly whisked away from the auction...

while the sardine boat Pride of Cornwall taking heed of a few days poor weather due over the weekend... 

makes her second landing of the night...

turning her attention from Britain's top chefs to some of the country's top skippers, Henrietta Graham (who, together with Tim Hall, runs Cornwall Painting Holidays from their new Newlyn studio)...

gets up close to the action aboard the hake netter, Karen of Ladram...

where another big trip of hake from the Northwest banks is winging its way out of the fishroom...

under the watchful eye of skipper Sid...

on a morning when the harbour is flooded with the kind of light and the sounds of hard labour that drew the attention the painter Stanhope Forbes and his followers that became regarded as the Newlyn School...

these days mobile technology can put people together in a way not dreamt of in Forbes' day...

the boys will be keen to get home after a ten day trip but there are still plenty of jobs to do at the end of the trip like an oil change...

if you want to get ahead, get a hat, if you want to get a hat, get ahead - and a mug...

a boss in the waiting!

How do you have a break after a haul?

Well the conversation might be in Dutch but you get the gist - when you're a hard working chap, how do you get to have a break?  Maybe some of our likeminded crew come up with their own version of how they have a break between hauls? Post your version of a break video with the hashtag #betweenhauls #mybreak

Mid-week market

Just the one netter with a big trip of hake and a handful of inshore trawl fish landed this morning...

even the New Harmony...

only managed some slack boxes of monk tails, good size though...

meanwhile, in the battle for King of the Dorys, it looks like Nigel on the Innisfallen...

was pretty much level pegging with Roger on the Imogen III...

though his squid tally...

was definitely better than Roger's cuttlefish, sorry, Devon squid tally...

whereas Roger blew him out of the water on the bass challenge with these two beauties...

with prices sky-high, twas just the big buyers on the market this morning...

casting a careful eye on these big haddock, the result of the oversize mesh that the netters use these days mean they catch almost no juvenile fish whatsoever...

which means the buyers were fighting between themselves over the Charisma's big hake...

and then showing some love on the market this morning...

while outside, new made up pots and gear is about to come off the wagon...

and go aboard young James Roberts' new spruced-up command, the Three Jays...

while the moon has now passed the waning gibbous...

 and entered the third quarter...

the Stylissa has just come back from Holland after a major refit involving a new engine, gearbox, shaft and prop and a superb paint job from the Dutch yard in the same colours as the sea fan bearing the same name...

just in from a short trip, the Elisabeth Veronique...

stays all set and in place...

for the handrail on the bow of the port's newest sardine catcher...

which all but finished by close of play.

The Threat of ‘Business as Usual’ for UK Fishermen

"Any attempt by the EU to assert authority over UK waters must be resisted, resisted strongly, and resisted today." 
Ian Duncan, MEP for Scotland.


Come brexit, the EU will lose some 298,718 square miles of the richest fishing grounds in the world. The waters to the west of Scotland extend 200 miles toward Rockall, where haddock, herring and mackerel abound and a gargoyle-like array of ugly fish inhabit the abyssal depths. To the east, our waters extend to the middle of the North Sea, rich in white fish and prawns. As the southern North Sea narrows, our sea border abuts the waters of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, awash with flat fish.

In some places our southern sea border, due in no small part to the Channel Islands, lies only 10 miles off the coast of France. The toe of Cornwall extends our waters 200 miles into the Atlantic, a finger pointing to the rich fishing grounds we share with Ireland. And to the west of Wales and southern Scotland we halve the Irish Sea with Ireland, where some of the richest scallop beds are to be found.

Come brexit, the management of these waters will return to the UK, and with devolution, the day-to-day responsibility will rest in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. There is much to do to prepare for the day.

Sadly, in Brussels nothing has changed. Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella has refused to discuss brexit, turning down a request from the Fisheries Committee, upon which I sit, to explore the real challenges that lie ahead. Alain Cadec, the Chair of the Committee, is rightly worried. He hails from Saint-Brieuc in Brittany, and his fishermen catch some three-quarters of their quota in British waters. The same is pretty much true for all the continental fishing fleets of the southern North Sea. They all catch their quotas in our waters. In few policy areas is the British negotiating position stronger than in fisheries.

However, the ‘business as usual’ mantra in Brussels carries with it a threat that needs to be met head on. The European Commission launched its proposal for a Multi-Annual Management Plan for the North Sea in August. Now the Fisheries Committee is about to appoint a lead negotiator to flesh out the plan. There is only one teensy-weensy issue: the EU share of the North Sea is 20%. Look at the map of European territorial waters. Together with Norway we are responsible for 80% of the waters. A little presumptive of the EU to determine a management plan for the North Sea when so little of it is theirs, one might argue.

The MEP expected to lead the negotiations on behalf of the Parliament is German Socialist Ulrike Rodust. Ms Rodust has previous. She was the Parliament’s rapporteur on the last reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. Ms Rodust is not the fisherman’s friend, I can assure you.

For obvious reasons, I have written to Commissioner Vella demanding that the North Sea plan be put on hold. There is a need for such a plan, but it should be determined by the UK and Norway. Thereafter the EU may wish to adopt the measures agreed by us.

The UK Fisheries Minister, George Eustace, is finely tuned in to this threat. As a leading brexiteer he is fully aware of the danger of an EU fait acompli. We can not allow the EU North Sea Management Plan to simply roll over into UK domestic law, binding fishermen for decades to come. He knows and I know that the fishermen of these islands deserve better than that. Any attempt by the EU to assert authority over UK waters must be resisted, resisted strongly, and resisted today. To that end, I will be working closely with George, and indeed with Scottish fisheries minister, Fergus Ewing, to ensure that out fishing communities get a settlement fit for the fishermen of these islands.

This article appeared in the Fishing News on Thursday 22nd of September 2016

NFFO Brexit report in full.

The referendum on 23rd June, which decided that UK should leave the EU, represents a seismic change for the UK fishing industry. We are taking the view that there may be risks and pitfalls associated with this monumental change of direction but overall, this is a huge opportunity to reshape the management of our fisheries to the great benefit of our fishing industry and coastal communities. The Common Fisheries Policy has taken us down many blind alleys over the years. Now a new era beckons. This will not be without its own challenges; but the very fact that the fickle and cumbersome European co-decision process will no longer be the arbiter of our fate, is tremendously liberating.

Chairman’s Report 2016
Brexit


It has been some ten weeks since the referendum and as you might expect, the Federation has been very active. Our Executive Committee met soon after the referendum on 12th July and agreed in broad outline our policy approach to the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. A working group has been established to develop detailed positions on the many aspects of fisheries policy that will be affected by Brexit. Two meetings of the group have already been held and it will continue to meet regularly for the foreseeable future. All final decisions on NFFO policy will continue to be made by the Executive Committee.

The Federation’s senior officers have already met with the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, David Davis, and will be in regular contact with Defra officials for the duration of the negotiations. Today’s meeting with UK, Fisheries Minister, George Eustice, is also an important opportunity to signal fishermen’s expectations of what we want and hope to emerge from the forthcoming negotiations. We will also be meeting the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Andrea Leadsom next week. As you can see, we are heavily engaged at the highest levels.

Whilst we certainly see the future of our fisheries being based on cooperation and collaboration with those countries that we share stocks with, we also see Brexit as an opportunity to reset quota and access arrangements to address the anomalies that have persisted since the early days of the CFP.

We are currently working hard on defining our priorities for the negotiations ahead but the bottom line is our belief that the quota shares held by the UK should broadly reflect the fish resources that are located in our waters.

We know the Brexit negotiations will be complex and sometimes arduous. However, fishing has high public and political visibility and is likely to be used by many as a litmus test on which the success of Brexit success will be judged.

The outcomes of the Brexit negotiations will be affected by many, many, factors but one over which we as an industry do have direct control is the extent to which we can speak with a single, clear, credible and coherent voice.

Opportunities

Being released from the strictures of the Common Fisheries Policy should afford a great many opportunities to reshape the rules under which we as an industry operate. Some examples could be:

⦁ To secure an exclusive 12 mile zone for our coastal fishermen
⦁ To reset our national quota shares to more fairly reflect the fish caught in our waters
⦁ To escape from the blunt control of Brussels over the detail of fisheries management
⦁ To re-shape our domestic fisheries to our own priorities
⦁ To design and implement our own pathway to stable, profitable and sustainable fisheries

There is much to play for and work is well under way.

Domestic Policy

Modernising inshore management within the protection of an exclusive 12 mile zone will provide a range of opportunities to do things better. The EU requirement for vessels above 10 metres to carry logbooks was built on by our own authorities and this ultimately created an artificial boundary that has skewed both fleet development and fishermen’s behaviours. Outside the rigidity and conformity of the CFP it may be possible to radically change inshore fisheries management for the better. The fundamental laws of fisheries won’t change: there needs to be a balance between fishing capacity and available resources if anything is to work. But for instance, it is worth exploring whether there are parts of the under-10 fleet whose impact is so slight that they could be treated as de minimis and be treated accordingly in terms of quota exemptions and much lighter restrictions.

Producer organisations – collectives of fishermen for quota management and marketing purposes - have been one of the great success stories of the last 20 years, developing sophisticated ways to obtain quota to keep their members fishing and marketing their catch. How to ensure that POs continue to perform these valuable services in the changed circumstances that Brexit will bring, is an important area of work.

Prior to the referendum, the Federation was already engaged with Defra and the MMO in defining a coherent strategy for the future of English fisheries, taking into account all their diversity and complexity. This work will continue but will take place within a dramatically altered regulatory landscape.

What will a discard ban tailored to the requirements of the UK look like? We already know that the EU landing obligation has the capacity to cause serious chokes in mixed fisheries. UK ministers have already signalled their intention to retain a discard ban post Brexit but what form will it take given that post Brexit there will be no requirement to slavishly follow EU legislation in this area? This is another area in which the NFFO will be concentrating its efforts.

Stocks

The failures of the CFP have been well documented over the years, not least in the Commission’s own Green Papers that preceded each of the reforms in 2003 and 2013. Wrong turnings, unintended consequences and a huge gulf between aspiration and delivery have been the hallmarks of a top-down, over-centralised system. These have been recognised and recorded. In understanding the limitations and shortfalls of the CFP, however, it is important, however, not to ignore what has been achieved.

Despite the wrong turnings and perverse outcomes, right across the North East Atlantic and across all of the main species groups, the exploitation rate has been brought within safe levels; not only this, but the official scientific view is that our fisheries are well on track to deliver high long term yields. It has been a painful journey getting to this point and it is important that whatever reformulated management arrangements arrive as a result of Brexit that we do not lose the progress that has been made.

In the meantime….

EU law and the CFP will apply to the UK fishing industry up to the point at which the UK exits the EU. The EU landings obligation will continue to be rolled out, adding new species and fisheries each year. A new Technical Conservation Regulation is in the pipeline, as are multi-annual management plans for the North Sea. Further measures on seabass may be in the pipeline and rolling out further marine protected areas. All these will require attention because they affect our members’ livelihoods in the here and now; but also because elements of them may find their way into UK legislation post-Brexit. The Federation cannot afford to take its eye off the ball on these short-term issues.

The EU’s approach to the concept of stock policies is a good example. There is no reason why fishermen would object to policies which bring high yields and high quotas. It has only been when the concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield has been misused and applied as dogma rather than as a broad and flexible aspiration, that resistance within the industry has built. This is an immediate issue as the rigid and inflexible MSY timetable, if accepted, will force drastic cuts in many quotas for next year despite a steady increase in biomasses across the board.

Similarly with the precautionary approach: all can agree that it is not wise to until every piece of evidence is in place before taking action; but the repeated cuts in quota for data-poor stocks that have caused serious socio-economic harm in, for example the skates and rays fisheries. The same is true of zero TACs and unrealistic bycatch limits for spurdog and bass. This has been the opposite of the progressive and flexible fisheries management that we require and it requires the Federation’s active intervention both now and in relation to the management of our fisheries beyond Brexit.

Landing Obligation

Until Brexit, the EU landing obligation represented the biggest change to the CFP since the Policy was established. For that reason, the NFFO has spent an enormous amount of time trying to make its implementation workable. Dealing with the issue of potential chokes in mixed fisheries has been at the forefront of our concerns, and some important progress has been made, with more to be done. Brexit will mean that after the UK has left the European Union, the EU landing obligation will no longer apply to UK fishing vessels or to UK waters. However, the signs are that the UK will want to retain its own variant of the discard ban and there is obviously another job of work to be done, jointly with officials in defining exactly what that will mean in practice.

Shellfish

Shellfish is a policy area that has been relatively lightly touched by the CFP. Nevertheless, it has suffered from inertia and lack of direction despite its huge contribution to the economic wellbeing of the industry. At the request of the NFFO, Defra is now in the process of establishing a Shellfish Strategy Group that will hopefully provide this vital sector with a sense of direction, in the face of challenges such as the MSY objective and increasing reliance on formal stock surveys. A data subgroup has already met to identify gaps in our knowledge on shellfish and to work with scientists and shell-fishermen to address them.

Small-Scale Fisheries

As someone who operates a vessel at the smaller end of the spectrum, I am acutely aware of the pressures, concerns and aspirations of the small-scale sector. I was proud of the work done by the Federation a couple of years ago to successfully fight of the Commission’s proposal to ban small-scale drift nets because of enforcement problems in Italy! The NFFO swung into action and the ban has been on the back burner ever since – leaving our sustainable small-scale fisheries to continue unmolested. This example told us much. It told us that despite the CFP reforms, a capricious and ill-informed Commissioner could potentially jeopardise a legitimate fishing activity on a whim. It told us that, whatever the issue, the NFFO would be found in the thick of the action, taking the lead and coordinating opposition to stupid and unfair policies. It also told us that well-marshalled rational arguments and a strong evidence-base could turn the political tide against the Commission.

It was an issue facing the small scale drift nets then; it could be issues affecting larger vessels tomorrow: The NFFO was created to fight for fishermen, wherever on the coast they are based; whatever fishing method they use and whatever the size of their vessel. The Federation’s work on shellfish policy, on drift nets, on salmon and on marine protected areas have all been directly focused on protecting the livelihoods of small scale fishermen. Fleet diversity is one of our industry’s great strengths and all parts of it are valuable.

Industry Reputation

Have you noticed that there are fewer media scare stories about fishing? There is still the odd ignorant comment made about depleted fish stocks that defies all the scientific evidence and still issues that have been taken out of context. But the Tsunami of distortions and manufactured crises has definitely waned and I think that it is fair to attribute this at least partly, to the work of the Federation and its partnership with communications specialists Acceleris. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall hasn’t been seen on the fishing scene since he and his Fish Campaign were taken apart by the NFFO on Newsnight. That wouldn’t have happened without a great deal of legwork by the NFFO/Acceleris team in securing the interest of sympathetic journalists to presenting the other side of the story.

There will always be the noisy 5%, those who from obsession, or because they are paid by charitable trusts. They will continue to cry wolf because they are paid to but I think that the NFFO can take some credit for bringing most of the mainstream media back to portraying the fishing industry as it should be: hard working and committed individuals doing a difficult job in sometimes arduous circumstances.

Unregistered Fishing

Following an NFFO initiative, the MMO launched a campaign earlier this year to address the growing problem of fishing for profit from unlicensed vessels. The campaign is initially centred on the shops, pubs, restaurants and hotels which buy fish caught in unlicensed vessels and sold through the back door. Letting these retail outlets know that this is not a victimless crime is the first step. Targeted enforcement with high visibility to name and shame the culprits, will follow if the practice continues.

Safety and Training

With two important pieces of legislation looming on the horizon, the Work in Fishing Convention and the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping in fisheries, it has been essential for us to ensure that these legislative measures are practical and achieve their intended improvements to safety and training.

The Federation has worked closely with a commercial company to design and develop a man over board dummy that is easy to use, simple to store and cheap to purchase. This initiative was started in response to a recommendation from the Marine accident Investigation Branch and shows how the NFFO are innovative and committed to improving safety for all fishermen.

Crew welfare has become a major concern for many owners and whilst the press are desperately pointing the finger at the fishing industry with little validation, we have sought to improve our understanding of the issues faced and solutions to the welfare issues our members are facing. Collaborating with the leading charity Human Right at Sea, we have established a strong understanding of the social and ethical issues in fisheries around the world and are working with them to help our members and fellow fishermen to be aware of the technical issues and be leaders for fishermen around the world.

Marine Protected Areas

The Federation has been working hard to ensure fisheries management measures within MPAs are introduced only when informed by proper levels of evidence. This work included the completion of a major piece of research to measure the nature of fishing seabed impacts according to individual gear components and taking into account the effects of natural disturbance. In the case of new potential MPA proposals for harbour porpoise and other highly mobile species, the Federation has pressed the case firmly with government that they are only designated with proper justification. Overall, the Federation has done much to swing the government away from a tick-box exercise approach towards a process based on evidence.

Conclusion

We live in interesting times. There will be challenges ahead. This is fishing: there are always challenges.

But there are opportunities too and what we make of those opportunities will be largely up to us. We are an extraordinarily diverse industry, with small-boats fishing from the beach up to very large vessels fishing in distant waters. The NFFO exists to give all of those fishermen and vessel owners a voice where it counts: where the decisions affecting our futures are decided.

The locus where those decisions are made may now change but our responsibility in delivering the industry’s view has not.

The clarity of that message that we deliver will help to secure our aims and it is natural and understandable that our political masters will look to the only body that even attempts to speak on behalf of the whole industry – the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations – our name speaks of our purpose, our aim and who we are.

Seafood Cornwall Training October 2016 newsletter.