The MMO is researching the Pressures of different fishing gear over the next four years

The MMO is researching the Pressures of different fishing gear over the next four years to enhance understanding of the types and magnitudes of pressures exerted by different types of fishing gear on the environment, and potential management actions that may be appropriate to manage any negative impacts from the fishing gear on protected features.

Brexit: Trade in food inquiry launched

Scope of the inquiry

The Committee wishes to examine how a potential trade deal could affect farmers, food processors and consumers.

Neil Parish MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

"The food, fish and farming sector is a key part of the UK economy, contributing some £108 billion annually and employing around 3.9 million people. The country’s half a million farmers produce 60% of the food eaten in the UK and manage some 70% of the land area.

It is vital that future trade arrangements allow farmers, fishermen and food processors to compete effectively. We welcome views on the steps that the Government and agri-food sector need to take to enable fishermen and processors to sell more of their produce at home and abroad. We also want to hear views on how trade policies can best allow UK consumers access to affordable, good quality food after Brexit."


It is hugely important that as many members of the industry as possible write and respond to this inquiry.  Maybe, in the interests of equality of opportunity Defra staff could visit places like Newlyn, Plymouth, Brixham or Mevagissey and get responses first hand to help those who don't have easy access to the internet or can easily put pen to paper and get their thoughts across to make a point.


The Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee invites evidence on the impact on the UK food and farming sectors of potential new trading arrangements with the EU after Brexit.

Inquiry: Brexit: Trade in food
Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee

The Committee wishes to examine how a potential trade deal could affect farmers, food processors and consumers.

UK goods and services can currently move freely between countries in the EU's single market. The EU's customs union also imposes standard tariffs on products traded into the UK from non-EU countries. A new framework for trading food and agricultural products across European borders will present new opportunities and challenges for the UK's agri-food sector.

Chair's comments
Neil Parish MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

"The food and farming sector is a key part of the UK economy, contributing some £108 billion annually and employing around 3.9 million people. The country's half a million farmers produce 60% of the food eaten in the UK and manage some 70% of the land area.

It is vital that future trade arrangements allow farmers and food processors to compete effectively. We welcome views on the steps that the Government and agri-food sector need to take to enable farmers and processors to sell more of their produce at home and abroad. We also want to hear views on how trade policies can best allow UK consumers access to affordable, good quality food after Brexit."

Scope of the inquiry:

The Committee invites interested parties to submit written evidence by 20 October 2017 on:

1. What challenges and opportunities will the UK food, fish and farming sectors face from new trade arrangements with EU countries after the UK leaves the European Union?
2. What trade policy objectives should Defra/ the UK Government establish in order to achieve the right balance between the interests of food consumers, producers and processors, and the environment?
3. How effective are the Government's arrangements for consulting the food, fish and farming sector and for representing their interests within the UK’s negotiations with the EU?
4. How effective are the Government's arrangements for representing the interests of the four nations within the UK's negotiations for trade in food?
5. What can farmers, fishermen, food producers and processors, and government do to prepare for changes to trading arrangements, including to improve production and to reduce trading costs?
6. The Committee will look at specific agricultural sectors in-depth: evidence which refers to the experiences of the sheep and lamb, beef, dairy, pork, poultry, horticultural and cereals industry are particularly welcome. An initial examination of the sheep production and processing sector is planned for the autumn.

Please note: The Committee is not specifically addressing labour impacts of Brexit as a short report published by Efra in the last Parliament covered these issues.

Mid-week market in Newlyn

When conditions are deceptive, although there is barely a breath of wind in the harbour the signs overhead tell a different story...

looks like preparations are in hand to begin work on the fish market's major upgrade...

keeping the buyers informed - good to see ALL the vessels with fish on the market make it on the arrivals board this morning...

and there is plenty of fish too...

and more than enough to keep the Cefas staff busy taking otolith samples and length measurements of species...

like plaice...

of which the beam trawler Cornishman landed the biggest trip of them seen on the market for many years...

where there's plaice there's no monk or megrims...

so its eyes down for the length data being collected...

other big flats included a few boxes of turbot...

a handful of reds...

an odd hake...

late landing for an inshore boat putting in the tows before the weather closes in later...

it's that bass time of year and the handliner Cynthia  came up trumps - Mr Astley will no doubt be itching to get back to sea and stuck into the bass... 

Nigel picked up a nice touch of JDs yesterday...

fresh blood, a sure sign of the freshness of the catch...

tons of cuttles...

and even auctioneer Ian looks surprised as the price paid by young Edwin for FalFish stays well above £4 a kilo - though Brixham market saw 75 tons on Monday's market alone this week!...

this is what cuttlefish look like (video clip courtesy of Brixham Fish Market)just after they get released from the cod end of the beam trawler's nets...

the 'umble scad...

the 'ansum 'ake...

and the delicious 'erring...

ex-fisherman, Mr Bullus still maintains his sense of humour at Celtic Fish & Game...

the scallopers are back in town...

big boats need big hydraulic motors - and plenty of oil to run them...

to lift those 17 dredges a side...

sterns don't come much bigger...

slowly slowly with the forklift...

temporary refrigerated storage has arrived for the fish market's refurb.

The fishermen gather in Quimper, in the fog of the Brexit

It's not just UK fishermen who are concerned about the kind of Brexit being negotiated:

Concerned about a Brexit threatening their prosperity, French fishing players want to make their voices heard Thursday and Friday in Quimper, fearing to be left behind in the negotiations for divorce between London and Europeans. Do not fish "the Brexit adjustment variable": the claim often comes up in the mouths of professionals and will be in all the heads of the 500 delegates. "We do not want to be marginalized," Hubert Carré, director general of the national fisheries committee, told AFP: "for three years, we can make money, we must not allow the Brexit to achieve the equivalent of what the steel industry experienced in the 1980s, "he explains.

British secession threatens the horizon of the French fishing, the British having announced to want to regain the exclusive control of the fishing rights near their coasts. However, after very difficult years, the sector in France is doing better. Inventories have returned to sustainable levels, demand for seafood is still very high and prices are rising, and although caution is warranted, the price of gas oil is at its lowest level in three years . "Companies have earned money and that is why a number of companies are taking advantage of it" to shyly renew an aging fleet, Hubert Carré explains.

But, according to the outlines that it will adopt, the Brexit could leave to dock many armaments. Catches in British waters represent on average 30% of the catches of the French fishery. A figure that can climb very quickly to more than double in the northern regions. "You take the gangs of Dunkerque or Calais, they are 20 minutes out of the harbor, they are in British waters, it is 75% of their turnover," Hubert Carré alarmed. Hence a concern for employment: the seamen on boats are close to 15,000, not to mention the thousands of jobs on land, especially in fish trading (4,500 jobs) and processing (16,000 jobs). - Papy-boom -

Problem, the Brexit occurs while the demographic curve of the employment of the sector begins a critical turning point. Between 2016 and 2020, 1,400 entrepreneurs - 30% - retire, according to the national fisheries committee, who fears that many are not replaced. "We must defend access to water for artisanal fishing and inshore fishing ... without which there is no fishing," explained in July the Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Travert to journalists in Brussels. This will require "finding agreements" with the British, he added, trying to reassure the industry.

The British had announced two weeks earlier that they would leave the 1964 London Fishery Convention (ie before the United Kingdom acceded to the EU in 1973) to regain exclusive control over fishing rights British coasts. The signal of a willingness to negotiate a "hard" Brexit, for some, of the shock for others, even if the absence of news of the negotiations does not leave to worry. "The English also fish in European waters," recalls the boss of the port of Lorient, Maurice Benoish. "If it were a hard Brexit, it would be very bad for the French and the port of Lorient, but it would not be good for the English either," he said.

Especially since "the fish do not know the administrative boundaries that are fixed on the sea. (...) One can hope that the common sense will prevail". Another argument in the negotiations, says Hubert Carré, the British "will be completely dependent on the European market and this is where we will start saying to them: + good, you do not want European ships in your economic zone , you simply do not consume what you fish, you export everything from the United Kingdom to Europe, it's going to be give-and-take. " 

Full story courtesy of Romandie.com

Lifeboat action over the weekend.

Saturday saw both Penlee lifeboats out on escort duty for the Round the Mount swim...

Classic ships...

always look good when they prepare to set sail from Newlyn, a reminder of days of yore...

a new scalloper has appeared on the block...

not a breath on Sunday morning...

as the lifeboat made her way out...

followed by another little classic sailing boat, the Tyler boat complete with family aboard head out for a day's sail around the Bay...

wok in progress for the Newlyn Gallery's Wet Auction...

as a heavy front moves across in front of the ever-watchful Tom...

the day boats get landed for Monday's market.

Fish to share.

Many British fishermen rejoiced after the UK vote to leave the European Union. They hoped it would mean fewer EU boats fishing in UK waters. 

Business reporter and sailor Lesley Curwen visits ports and harbours at both ends of Britain to talk to fishermen about their hopes and fears, and hears from a group of European fishermen who argue a hard Brexit would destroy thousands of their jobs.

Courtesy of producer Smita Patel at the BBC Radio 4 Business Programme.

It's #FishyFriday and the bad weather hits landings

Three Jays on the hard this morning...

no trawl and no beam trawl fish for the market this morning...

so apart from a few boxes of line caught mackerel...

and a dozen or so top quality red mullet...

there were almost more merchants than fish...

with just the Karen of Ladram making the first and only netter's landings this week...

so it was pretty slack pickings for many of the buyers...

with prices sky-high for fish like these hake...

and cod...

like many things these days.