The Sunday Times wades in with its Sea Rescue camapign

The Sunday Times published a story in this weekend's magazine on overfishing and is now also covering the Tory MP Caroline Spelman who intends naming some of the few big companies that now own a considerable chunk of UK fishing quota - quotas that exist after the EU carved up the right-to-fish in our very own territorial waters donated so kindly by Ted Heath's Tory government back in the 70s on such generous terms - the consequences of that deal that now threaten the very livelihoods of thousands of inshore fishermen who are barely able to catch collectively some species what the biggest trawlers catch in a single trip at sea.

AIS from VesselTracker showing the course of the Eder Sands from the west coast of Scotland.

Many of the vessels that now operate under UK flags - many so-called, 'flag of convenience' boats have been fined or investigated in the past for fishing illegally - as in the case of this Spanish owned vessel, the Eder Sands which has so far been registered in Milford Haven, Brixham (version 2) and currently Ullapool.


Under 10metre vessels in the south west are now adversley affected by minimal quotas for such predominant species like haddock and pollack as a result of these huge quota buyouts as bigger vessels were decommissioned over the last 20 years to meet EU restructing demands. Noone can deny the need for conservation these days but there is a grwoth in the inequity weith which the remaining fish quotas are ending up in the hands of the biggest players who are not even UK based interests.


The discards agreement still waiting clarification from last weeks CFP process is just one issue that needs more urgent attention if apparently dwindling fish resources are not to be wasted.