This Fishing Life on BBC2 in the New Year!

Starting in the first week of the New Year - six one hour programmes on BBC 2 documenting the lives of fishing communities around Cornwall.

Filming began in fishing communities across Cornwall last March and continued until December.

Whilst other fishing communities are feeling the pinch, Mevagissey on Cornwall’s south coast bucks the trend, with 74 working boats in the harbour.

Protected from the prevailing winds, with fish stocks that are beginning to return, and with boats being handed down from father to son. Meva is blessed.

Fishing is in the blood here - for more than 250 years the men of Meva have followed their fathers to sea, eager to honour the family traditions. Now the next generation of ambitious young skippers are ready to make a go of it.

Jack West fished with his dad growing up, and the family have decided the time is right to invest in Jack. Having spent thousands on the Anne Louise, the pressure is on to get out to sea and start earning some money.

The Galwady Mor is owned by one of Mevagissey’s most successful fishing families, the Blameys.

27-year-old Chris is the 4th generation to go to sea. This year he takes over the responsibility of skippering the Galwady from his father Peter. The passing down of a lifetime’s knowledge is priceless, but Chris knows he will face different challenges to his dad. Whilst fish stocks are returning to Meva, there is not the abundance there once was.

Mevagissey is a village built on fish - pilchards in particular. Once, everyone was after them. Now tourism is the main industry. The village is dominated by second homes and holiday lets, and the place is all but empty in winter.

One of the impacts has been on crew. With local housing pricing young men out, and a steady income – not something associated with fishing - needed to get a mortgage, there aren’t the young men lining up on the quay any more.

Valhalla taking ice in Newlyn

Dave Warwick on the Valhalla is one of the skippers looking for crew, and has to take the risk of skippering his boat solo until he can find some. He is limited to working the well-fished inshore waters until he can find men made of the right stuff.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Saunders is winding down after a long career at sea. Malcolm grew up when fish stocks were plentiful and he got his fill – and made a lot of money. But with the toll a lifetime away at sea took on his family, he is not sure he made the right decisions, and wonders whether the next generation of skippers will learn from his mistakes.

Episode 1 Cornwall: This Fishing Life Series 1 Episode 1 of 6

Memorial ride-out for Conor Mosely.

Floral tributes to young Conor Moseley were laid at the foot of the harbour Christmas tree...

before nearly 100 bikers rode out...

accompanied by family and friends in as vintage double-decker bus...

to Lands End in tribute to Conor.

A Government and Fisheries.

The election of a Conservative government, with a solid majority, means that the passage of the Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament seems guaranteed; meaning that the UK will leave the EU on 31st January 2020. The provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement spell out that, from that date, the UK will be an independent coastal state, with regulatory autonomy over fishing within its exclusive economic zone, albeit subject to a transition period to the end of 2020, during which the UK would still be subject to the Common Fisheries Policy.

Fisheries Bill

The Government will also be in a position to reintroduce its Fisheries Bill to provide itself with powers to implement its programme on fisheries, including powers to control access over who is permitted to fish in UK waters, and to set its own quotas (accepting that for shared stocks, these will usually be set in cooperation with other coastal states.) The previous Bill was pulled after its provisions became at risk of the arithmetic in the previous Parliament.

Negotiations

Early next year, talks will begin between the UK and the EU on a framework fisheries agreement that will determine the shape of cooperation between the UK and EU, after the end of the transition period. A framework agreement could consist of very high-level statements, referencing cooperation on managing shared stocks, broad commitments to sustainable fishing, and compliance with the UN Law of the Sea. It is expected that a framework agreement could be concluded by the end of July. The current framework agreement between EU and Norway, is an obvious template.

Negotiations for an annual UK/EU fisheries agreement for 2021 would be expected to occupy the second half of 2020. There will also be tripartite and bilateral discussions with relevant coastal states such as Norway and Faeroes. The content of the annual fisheries agreement would include setting TACs, quota shares and exchanges, and access arrangements.

Both the EU and the UK accept, under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, that from the end of the transition period their fleets will have no automatic right to fish in each other’s waters. Access would be subject to negotiation, as would quota shares and quota exchanges.

The UK, in its White Paper, has made clear that some level of access could be granted to EU fleets to fish in UK waters, subject to the satisfactory negotiation of revised quota shares. The EU has made it equally clear that any free trade deal with the UK would be contingent on the status quo on access and quota shares.

In both the EU and the UK, fishing rights are a matter of high visibility and high political profile.

The stakes are therefore very high for all parties as we enter this next phase of negotiations with the EU. The UK fishing industry sees the UK’s departure from the EU as an opportunity to break free from a cumbersome and ineffective management system, and a chance to redress the asymmetrical access and quota arrangements which have worked to the UK’s disadvantage for 40 years. The EU will try to hang on to the current arrangements which work so well to its benefit.

Against this background, the NFFO will be working closely with UK Government to ensure that the commitments it has made on fisheries are delivered in full.

New safety funding from Seafish for PFDs!

PFDs will save your life if you go overboard - fact.

Seafish is administering a new UK Government-funded scheme which allows owners of UK-registered commercial fishing vessels to recover £200 per item against the cost of purchasing type-approved Personal Flotation Devices (PFDs) fitted with integrated Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) for their crew.

The scheme is being delivered in co-operation with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and Trinity House as part of the Fishing Industry Safety Group’s 10-year strategy to eliminate preventable deaths in the UK fishing industry. It is open to owners of active UK registered commercial fishing vessels who have not previously received support for purchasing PLBs. (You can apply for the cost of adding a PLB if you previously received funding to purchase PFDs).

To qualify for funding, owners must apply to Seafish for approval before purchasing their preferred PFDs/PLBs. They need to provide a specification of the equipment they want to buy, a quote from their preferred supplier and an indication of the number of items required to equip all the crew on their vessel.

Please note:

The deadline for applications to be received is 31 March 2020.

Funding will not be awarded retrospectively so owners must complete the application form and receive authorisation before purchasing equipment to be eligible for reimbursement.
PFDs purchased must comply with minimum standards – see MGN 588 for details.
Seafish will check with the MCA and the relevant Fisheries Department to check and confirm the accuracy of the information provided in an application – including personal details, vessel ownership, licensing and that it is currently active.

Download a PFD/PLB funding application form here
(N.B. the above link will download a word document)

Completed application forms should be returned by email to: training@seafish.co.uk

On receipt of an application, Seafish will check the details provided and then write to the applicant to confirm eligibility and provide a claim form if your application is successful.

Storms delay entire UK 2019 Election results!

Bathing Mounts Bay in an an early morning orange glow...

the sun rises over the fishing fleet in Newlyn harbour, one blue, one orange and one red - which of the three parties will win as the entire country waits for the final constituency of St Ives to be declared - it seems that storm force winds have prevented the ballot boxes from being shipped from the off islands of the Scillys!

Can a Conservative Government deliver what the NFFO wants?

The NNFO have posted their manifesto for the fishing industry in the final stages of the election. In it they address the major concerns of access, quotas, quota distribution and the possible impact of Brexit negotiations.

On Sunday's Andrew Marr show the Foreign Secretary did little to inspire complete confidence in the governments ability or intention to divorce fishing from any kind of trade agreement - for those old enough, that might bring back memories of a previous Conservative government under Ted Heath infamously remembered for having sold the UK fishing industry down the river for French sheep.

ACCESS QUESTIONS DODGED – MINISTER WON’T SAY YES OR NO ON BREXIT ACCESS QUESTION

Linkage of access and trade issue spelled out on Marr show A senior cabinet minister refused to confirm that there will be fewer foreign vessels in UK waters after Brexit. He also failed to answer an allegation that the current Brexit deal negotiated by Boris Johnson is no different from Theresa May’s deal, and inevitably links fisheries negotiations to the overall trade deal.

The BBC’s Andrew Marr said that EU negotiator Phil Hogan had said that a free trade agreement could be reached by the end of 2020, but that the UK would have to agree to ‘a level playing field’ on regulations.

He asked foreign secretary Dominic Raab on his Sunday morning TV programme whether he would commit to a level playing field.

When he dodged the question, Andrew Marr said he suspected the free trade deal would be ‘a lengthier and more difficult process than the government is saying’. He continued: “Let’s take fishing. After you’ve done a deal on fishing, which you want to finish by July next year, are foreign trawlers going to get good access to British waters or not?”

The foreign secretary refused to commit to saying there would be fewer foreign boats despite being asked three times, saying only that it would be subject to negotiation, with the UK in control as an independent coastal state.

Andrew Marr pointed out that the political declaration with the EU says: “Within the context of the overall economic partnership, the parties should establish a new fisheries agreement on access to waters and quota shares.” “That’s a very specific linking of the two things,” he told the foreign secretary.

He said that when Boris Johnson first saw those words in the political declaration negotiated by Theresa May – the same as in the deal he had negotiated – ‘he flipped his lid and resigned’.

Boris Johnson’s comment, shown on screen, was: “Theresa May’s deal hands the EU infinite power to bully and blackmail this country to get whatever it wants in the future negotiations. And if history teaches us anything, it is that our European friends will not desist until they have worked out a way to plunder the waters of Scotland for their fish.”

“He was furious about it,” said Andrew Marr. “Can you explain to viewers how the thing he was furious about is different in any way to the deal you have negotiated under Boris Johnson in the free trade agreement?”

Dominic Raab again said only that the UK would be in control during bilateral negotiations as an independent coastal state. Andrew Marr said that the two political declarations were ‘word for word the same’.

Asked if we would leave without a deal at the end of the year if the government could not get the deal it wants on fishing, Dominic Raab said only that ‘as with any negotiation, of course there’s going to be compromise on both sides’. He said he believed there was an opportunity for ‘a win-win here, a deal which is great for the UK which is also good for our European friends. That’s what we’re aiming for’.

Andrew Marr told the foreign secretary: “We’re sitting here in the middle of the election campaign, and in lots of marginal constituencies and coastal seats up and down the country, fishermen and their families are looking very, very carefully, and they are hearing you saying there is going to be compromise.”

He asked again if we would leave without a deal if there was no deal on fishing, but Dominic Raab said that he could not break down in advance ‘the hypothetical negotiation stance’.

“The guarantee I can give is that we’re going to be an independent coastal state with full control, and we’ll do what is in the best interests of fishermen and women up and down the country.”

He did not think it ‘remotely likely’ we would leave without a deal.

The UK industry and government position is that access to fisheries for European vessels to British waters, and vice versa, must be treated separately from the overall trading relationship. This is spelled out in the UK white paper of 2018.

EUFA: Access/trade link ‘really important to us’

EU fishermen say that they wanted the link between trade and fisheries from the start.

“That was really important to us,” Gerard van Balsfoort, chairman of the European Fisheries Alliance (EUFA), told the Irish national broadcaster RTE.

“This is the starting position. There will be a direct link to the wider economic and trade partnership. We wanted this from the start in the mandate, and also in the text of the political declaration. The whole linkage of the wider partnership and fisheries is still there.”

A linkage between trade and fisheries access puts the UK in a difficult position because of the risk to all food and drink exports to the EU, and particularly shellfish, if there is no deal and there are therefore restrictions on exports, and delays at the border.

RTE quoted an EU official saying: “The rhetoric on fisheries has been toned down. There’s a realisation it’s a hell of a lot more complicated. The shellfish sector has raised their voice in the past six months, saying that with no deal, they would be wiped out overnight. Especially in the west of Scotland, the small island communities – all the exports go to France. It’s time-contingent, it has to get there in 24 hours.”

Gerard van Balsfoort said: “The UK intention will be to use the access to waters to get a higher share of the quota. What quota exactly, we don’t know.”

Sean O’Donoghue, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation, told RTE that every EU head of government was ‘fully aware’ of the importance of the linkage between access and trade. Ireland is particularly exposed to any restrictions on access to UK waters. Of the 50 species that Irish vessels target, 47 are shared with British fleets.

“Overall, we need 30% access for all the different species,” said Sean O’Donoghue. “But that belies the fact that two of our main economic drivers are mackerel and prawn. We need 60-70% access for mackerel and 40% for prawns.”

He said: “If the foundation stone isn’t laid at the beginning in the trade talks, and the access and percentage sharing arrangements aren’t agreed and written into the deal, then we’re on a hiding to nothing. If the arrangement has to be rolled over annually, the UK could say at the outset, that’s fine, but they’d wait two or three years and say, we’re not agreeing with that any more.”

An Irish official said: “The UK think they’re going to be sold down the river. Our guys think the same. One of them is going to be right.”  - a report by Tim Oliver from Fishing News.

Need to know more about the Under10m reporting app?

For all those Under 10m skippers and owners - head down to Newlyn on Friday to the MMO porta-cabin for the lowdown on the new Under 10m reporting app!