Not too long after this video was made skipper John Turtle came out of fishing for good - "throwing it (the fish) back is so demoralising" "given the chance I'd get out of it tomorrow" "there's no enjoyment in it anymore, I love the boat, I love the job.........It's a............" "I want a sustainable future, I want the youngsters to have a future"
Diary extract from Phil Lockley who made this short documentary:
This short video was made to highlight what Jon Turtle and others were going through with the quota cuts and to film them dumping boxed and gutted cod after a day when the Ben Loyal had (by accident with hake nets) hit a big cluster of cod. They phoned the MMO telling them about it and asking to land it for charity. It was all above board, but the MMO in London (not Newlyn, they were sympathetic) said 'no' and forced the skipper and his crew to dump 1.5 tons about one mile from the Gaps. This powerful short film documents the feelings of fishermen at the time, many of whom (as now in some cases) feel broken by a totally immoral and crude system of fish stock management - in the interview with the skipper at the end you can see the emotion in his eyes. Filmed by Jed Trewin and Phil Lockley. The new discards ban is but a small step in reversing the ludicrous legislation that is the CFP based on quotas based on poor at best or flawed science at worst.
It was a shocking example of the truth that stems from the EU's inability to understand anything that is not land based, orderly and predictable. The EU is not just acid to the hearts of UK fishermen, but to those from all the EU States (nine in total) that I met at a Brussels' congress. I cannot see how the EU will ever stop discards while it has quota management in mixed fisheries.
In 24 hours of being on Youtube, over 1800 have watched it - and - the likes/dislikes score is 3/2, showing how not everyone is anti EU - but - what's the betting none of the 'dislikes' is anything to do with the UK fishing industry?
Here's a great quote from a fisherman on the matter of the EU's inability to deal with how to conserve fish with quotas which inevitably leads to dumping:
"People like the bosses at the MMO and MPs, they are so far away from reality that they are, understandably, at the best confused and at the worst just bored with fishing."