UK Fishing Industry Warning as further COVID-19 Restrictions Bite Hard

UK fishing industry covid-19 restrictions Call4Fish say the UK fishing industry will suffer job losses under further COVID-19 restrictions.

Fishermen across the United Kingdom have expressed grave concerns about their future in the industry as fresh COVID-19 restrictions hit fish sales.

The industry has warned that thousands of jobs are at risk as restaurants cancel orders and doors shut due to coronavirus restrictions designed to prevent households from mixing.  Falling fish sales, in particular high-end fish such as crabs and lobsters, have prompted industry figures to call for greater government assistance and the launch of a campaign to persuade people to buy more fish over the Christmas holidays.

The Fishing Daily Call4Fish came together in March to help fishermen affected by the COVID-19 crisis, many of whom fell outside various government schemes for jobs and businesses. The group worked hard to enable consumers to source and buy fish locally, which was a great outlet for desperate fishermen.  Once again Call4Fish is calling on the British public to help out the nation’s distressed fishermen and have launched their latest campaign “Spread Christmas Cheer, Give Fish This Year”.

The idea behind the campaign is to set up a gift service in an attempt to fill in for the loss of the restaurant and party season. They have asked people to send a fabulous gift of a box of fish and shellfish to friends and family, and to stock up your freezers with locally sourced fish.

The campaign comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces calls this week to announce whether measures will be lifted to allow families to celebrate Christmas after one police and crime commissioner said the current guidelines meant officers would have to break up gatherings on Christmas Day.

As of today, Friday, almost nine million people will be living under the strictest alert level in England where mixing between households is banned indoors and in private gardens, while even the lowest restrictions in Tier 1 areas prevent groups of more than six from meeting up.

If the restrictions were to remain in place over the Christmas period, it would signal the end for many fishing families around the coast.  Former Director of fisheries and Marine at DEFRA and co-founder of Call4Fish Rodney Anderson said:

“The COVID crisis came hard and fast at the fishing industry in the Spring, had it not been for Call4Fish and other initiatives that helped suppliers and fishermen sell to the public things would have been a lot worse.

“On the continent boats were tied up for weeks, but here in the UK, the public support was unprecedented, it really kept the fleets going. They showed up at their fish shops, or went online and ordered for home delivery. Perhaps for the first time, across the country households were enjoying freshest-of-fish, a myriad of species found in our waters but not on supermarket shelves and the feedback was amazing.

“It is difficult to see without that public support once again rising up how many of these businesses will keep going to Christmas.

“Industry is warning that they are seeing a slow decline in sales over the past few weeks with prices dropping by 30% as export markets once again soften, restricted operations of some restaurants and lockdown affecting others are weakening demand for their products.”

Over the past few years fishermen have invested a lot of time and money into improving fishing methods and safety in the industry by investing in new boats or upgrading their current vessels. Boat owners and fishers are self-employed and many of them find themselves in debt with no income at this time other than their local fish sales.

St Ives skipper, David Stevens is owner of the trawler Crystal Sea SS 118 whose family has been fishing for twelve generations. The Stevens family took delivery of the Crystal Sea in February this year from Macduff Shipyards in Scotland.

Speaking on the the current situation Mr Stevens said:

“The problem for fishing families is that all incomes coming into their households are associated with their fishing business, so when their income from sea drops the whole family is affected and it’s not possible to make up for the poor prices their fish gets.

“We’re seeing fish prices dropping 30% from what wasn’t a strong place to start with due to further lockdowns across the UK and Continent.

“The public support was truly amazing through the lockdown and we’re going to need them and Call4Fish more than ever again now. “So if you are looking for a great fish meal, you know who to call. There’s rough waters ahead for all of us. But we will keep fishing and people fed and hope for the best. It’s what we do.”

Catherine Spencer, Seafarers UK CEO said:

“Our research on Fishing Without a Safety Net was carried out before the impact of COVID-19. But even then, it was possible to see the fragility of the small scale inshore fishing industry with many lacking any savings or reserves to fall back on. “When the first lockdown occurred the financial support programmes that were immediately actioned by Government for employees and the self-employed, mostly did not apply to fishing businesses. This left many fishers without any form of safety net at all. “Seafarers UK is doing all it can to create a new financial safety net for fishers and I call on the Government to do the same. It is difficult to see how some fishers will survive a locked-down COVID winter without urgent Government intervention to put in place a safety net. 

 “Fishermen around the coast are already feeling the pinch. Normally at this time of year prices will begin to rise as hospitality starts their Christmas Party season and wholesalers prepare for their Christmas rush and take early stock positions, but not this year.” “Crab and lobster prices have been poor all year and we had weeks when Covid hit when we couldn’t sell at all and so couldn’t fish,” says Plymouth based crabber Brian Tapper. “We are a family business, me and my son work the boats and the wife has a small processing unit and shop. But it’s been a hard year and we don’t have the reserves we usually have to get us through the winter. It is all tied up together, our business also supports three other families who as crew and in the shop, we are their sole source of income too. I worry for all of us.”

Graham Flanningan of Berwickshire Shellfish whose family firm is responsible for selling the catches of 12 small crab and lobster boats in his area said:

“These latest industry concerns come on the back of a recently published report Fishing Without a Safety Net by maritime charity SEAFARERS UK commissioned last year that demonstrated fishing business, but in particular the small scale fleet often the beating heart of their coastal communities had little or no savings, or financial reliance, and that was before the first wave of COVID-19 in the Spring.”

The Berwick-on-Tweed shellfish trader has a large vested interest not alone in his boats but also in their crews and families. “We have around twelve fishing boats,” he continues. “Boats that rely on us landing crabs & lobsters on a daily basis weather permitting. “In October, we would normally see the lobster market prepare to place Christmas orders to pre-book stock , this hasn’t happened at all. “Restaurants are closing at a terrifying rate & people who are still in work are very cautious with what money they have to spend. “Over the last 9 months we have seen a massive drop on demand both in the UK and throughout France & Spain. Prices of Live Lobsters have dropped as much as 30% on this period last year. Sending markets into a downward spiral. “The only good side to this is the fact that we created a new website last year and this has been a great success for online seafood orders during the 1st lockdown in the UK. “We were able to send out packs of Fresh Fish & Shellfish on a daily basis, allowing our customers the chance to eat fresh healthy seafood delivered to their door the next day, as we look forward in the current climate it appears that this way of shopping for a lot of people is here to stay for sometime. Thus helping to keep our Fishermen’s families and ourselves in a job.”

Brexit has also brought a huge uncertainty to the fishing industry. The permanent loss of valuable markets such as France and Italy in the EU is a possibility but even if the access remains, the likelihood of high trade tariffs will diminish further meagre profits which is the fisher’s wage.

Plymouth crabber Brian Tapper summed it up in his conclusion:

“With the transition period ending on January 1st, and uncertainty of what that means for UK exports, it looks to be a long bleak winter for fishermen and the coastal communities who rely upon the shore based jobs that support it and them.”

Full story courtesy of Fishing News Daily.

New guidance published to support commercial fishers, merchants and exporters from 1 January 2021

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is supporting businesses to prepare from 1 January 2021 

From 1 January 2021, the UK will have sole responsibility for the future of our seas and fishing industry and we need to be ready for change.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is supporting businesses to prepare now by producing a series of guides to signpost the steps commercial fishers and seafood exporters may need to take to continue trading. 

Our ‘one stop shop’ guide for commercial fishers, merchants and exporters covers the administrative side of the fishing industry – signposting to business requirements needed such as for fishing, landing, exporting, importing, transportation, food hygiene and regulatory controls.

There is also a handy step by step guide to exporting fish and seafood products to the EU, and a checklist for fishers intending to landing their catch directly into the EU.

Some processes will stay the same, such as UK registered vessels landing fish in UK ports, and the regulations that are in place to deter and prevent illegal fishing will not change. Our guides will be updated with the latest information over the coming weeks.

Remote Electronic (REM) Monitoring Call for Evidence

Remote Electronic (REM) Monitoring Call for Evidence Closes 30 Nov 2020 

Overview From January 2021, at the end of the transition period, the UK will, as an independent coastal State, control and manage the resources in our waters. With a new way paved for our country, our marine environment and our fishing industry, it is important to think about long-term ambitions.

As part of our commitment to delivering a world class fisheries management system Defra committed to look at increasing the use of Remote Electronic Monitoring in the recent Fisheries Bill debates and our White Paper. We want to do so openly and collaboratively. This call for evidence is the first stage of that process. From this we will work with interested parties and follow up with a formal consultation next year.

Remote Electronic Monitoring includes integrated on-board systems of cameras, gear sensors, video storage, and Global Positioning System units, which capture comprehensive videos of fishing activity with associated sensor and positional information.

Why We Are Consulting

Defra is interested in how we can expand our use of Remote Electronic Monitoring to help us manage and monitor our fisheries and marine environment moving forward. However, we know there are a number of questions and challenges that we, industry and other interested parties must jointly work through before that expansion can happen.

Take the online survey here

Contact Ayath Ullah 

(REM Policy Adviser) 

MarineFisheries.PreparednessCentre@defra.gov.uk 

Thursday evening to the final #FishyFriday of October

With heavy ground seas forcing there way deep into Mounts Bay the Scillonian III spent Wednesday evening into Thursday morning riding at anchor in Gwavas Lake...

by mid-afternoon on Thursday the effect of these powerful passing seas could be seen at the entrance to Newlyn harbour, the movement in the water more reminiscent of an ebbing river...

on to Friday morning and fish are already being whisked off the market floor...

conger eels inhabit the darker recesses of the ocean...

while these bream are no doubt set to brighten up lucky local diners' dinner plates over the next few evenings...

lemon sole - if you don't know how, ask and your favourite fishmonger will trim them ready to grill or bake whole - lemons, like many flatfish benefit from being cooked on the bone...

the name is everywhere, but maybe it won't be long before these iconic red fish boxes are a thing of the past...

St Georges and the monk tails, doesn't quite have the same ring as dragons...

today, there were no boxes of line caught fish to sell from the inshore fridge this morning, blame the weather...

but there were plenty of MSC Certified hake courtesy of the Stelissa...

handle with care - the innocuous little black spiked dorsal fins on these greater weavers pack a pretty painful punch when pricked...

the orange team at rest...

two of the Rowse team at rest.

 

Breakfast at Tiffanys? Try breakfast or lunch at the Swordfish!

 

Work...

rest...

play at the Swordy...

enjoy breakfast or lunch from 9am to 2pm, Monday through to Saturday 

helping to feed the workers (and visitors) in Newlyn while the Harbour Cafe is closed due to Covid-19!

Smallest cove in Cornwall.

Around 50 yards wide, Porthgwarra is the smallest and westernmost cove on the south coast of Cornwall...

it is tucked in just around the corner from Gwennap head but still feels the force of the prevailing westerly weather on a fresh day...

back in the day, burrowing through solid granite for a few feet... 

and creating a granite paved slipway to give easy access to the steep beach was nothing for the locals...

the shoreline here provides no easy escape from the sea...

punching the westerly swell, Charisma makes her way south to the fishing ground and a few days fishing for hake...

passing the southerly cardinal Runnesltone Buoy which has two downward pointing triangles, the highest pinnacles on the Runnelstone reef which the buoy indicates, cause the passing swells sea to break...

looking south and the sun is briefly hidden by large scudding clouds...

looking north and a heavy shower passes over Lands End...

and, moments later has gone.

Brexit: the end of Breton deep-sea fishing?

This article, by Alain le Sann appears on the Fisheries Development Collective website:

British fishermen want to take advantage of Brexit to reclaim the Exclusive Economic Zones of the seas surrounding their island. Breton fishermen are very worried about it!

Currently only 32% of the catch in their EEZs for UK fishermen 50% of Breton fishing landings come from British waters. The near prospect of nationalization of their EEZ by the British, strongly demanded by their fishermen, therefore legitimately worries all fishing professionals in Brittany and France. 

The British want to withdraw 75% of the fishing quotas that are allocated to fishermen from other countries. We can therefore imagine in the extreme a virtual disappearance of Breton deep-sea fishing with repercussions on coastal fishing which would be increasingly in demand. 

The British fishermen accuse the other countries of the European Union of monopolizing their resources since their adhesion to the Common Fisheries Policy. Indeed, out of an average of 1.6 million tonnes caught each year in UK waters, 68% by weight are caught by foreign vessels, for 54% by value. EU boats are not the only foreign vessels, as there are also agreements allowing Norwegians and Faroese to fish in the UK. 21% of catches are made by the Norwegians, 4% by the Faroese, i.e. in total, approximately 400,000T; in return, Europeans have fishing rights in Norwegian waters. 

British fishermen forget that the CFP and the creation of EEZs, which they resisted, helped drive the Soviets from their waters. For their part, the British only make 100,000 T of catches outside their waters. Access to British waters is therefore vital for the majority of European countries on the Atlantic seaboard. The proportion of British fishermen must undoubtedly be reduced even further if we take into account the many boats under the flag of the United Kingdom which are in fact Dutch or Spanish. The Dutch trawler Cornelis Vrolijk therefore has 23% of the British quotas for pelagic species. In total, British fishermen have only 18% of the quotas in the North Sea, 30% in the Channel, 

 

The weight of history

Obviously the British accuse the CFP of being responsible for their situation. This is partly correct because, like all fishermen, they have been subjected to the European constraints of reducing fleets and quotas as well as the various political management measures. But the allocation of quotas was made when the United Kingdom entered the European Union and is based on relative stability. 

This distribution was made at the worst moment for the United Kingdom and especially England: when the English industrial fishing collapsed, but Europe had nothing to do with it.On a map of fishing harbors in Great Britain, it can be seen that there are hardly any major fishing harbors left outside of Scotland, Cornwall and the South West. The powerful English fishery collapsed in the late 1970s and 1980s for two reasons. It consisted of two sectors dominated by industrial armaments: cod fishing in Iceland and herring fishing in the North Sea. The closure of Icelandic and then Norwegian waters led to the rapid disappearance of industrial cod fishing, while the herring fishery did not survive the collapse of the resource due to overfishing. 

The disappearance of the English fishery is also due to the industrial structure of the shipping lines, unable to finance a restructuring on close alternative resources, with smaller boats. In Scotland, at the same time, the artisanal structure of the armaments allowed a boom in fishing towards new resources in the North Sea, rather neglected before (Langoustines, haddock, etc.). It is true that Europe has worsened the situation with its liberal policy favoring the capture of quotas by the passage of foreign vessels under the British flag. 

The fishermen tried to impose restrictions but they were not enough to curb the phenomenon. British fishermen have also suffered like others from policies aimed at restoring stocks, but they must now recognize that stocks are generally at a good level or in the process of being restored. The British fleet has also become very profitable, which makes it possible to renew the boats, The situation of British fishing is therefore first and foremost the product of the history before its integration into the European Union. Whether it is the English Channel or the North Sea, before the creation of the EEZs and the common fishing zone, European fishermen moved from one coast to another and this for centuries; there were tensions but they also looked for means to limit them, as between Jersey, Normandy and Brittany. There is also a cohabitation agreement in the Channel between the trailing arts and the dormant arts. The London Convention between European countries signed in 1964 recognized the rights of adjacent countries.

The illusions of British fishermen.

British fishermen are probably deluding themselves that Brexit will allow them to find control over their waters, which they never had. The European Union is firmly committed to preserving fishing rights in British waters. It has an argument for this. The English fish market is small and it has even declined with the fishery itself; the markets are therefore in Europe and particularly in France. Moreover, it is impossible to imagine management of stocks independent of that of the European Union. There will undoubtedly be forceful acts to drive out boats, but in the long term, British fishermen do not weigh heavily against other interests. Environmental ENGOs are powerful in the UK as well as the interests of energy companies (wind and oil).

The UK's marine space is increasingly occupied by wind farms. Finally, the strength of British liberalism is such that forces are already pushing for the generalization of ITQs (Individual Transferable Quotas) to further eliminate fishermen. If that happens, we will see the sale of quotas to foreign vessels.

The state of stocks has improved significantly . There are not enough British fishermen to exploit all their resources, even if Brexit can promote a certain renewal, where the forces exist. The bosses must already have massive recourse to immigrant sailors. 

In Scotland, sailors are more and more often from Asian countries. Finally, what will happen with Scotland? The Scots account for half of the British fishery for 50% of the 11,000 fishermen. Fishing is very dynamic there and the fishermen want Brexit, but there is already talk of a new referendum on Scottish independence, strongly supported by the European Union. What will then weigh the last English fishermen in a country where a minister of fisheries also declared himself as the minister of amateur fishermen, more numerous and more influential politically and economically?

Territories versus Markets.

In 1999, Christian Lequenne wrote in a Sciences Po review: “Contrary to popular belief, the 270,000 fishermen in the European Union do not go to sea with a strictly individualistic representation of their professional activity. On the contrary, they exercise their profession with the feeling of belonging to professional communities anchored in territories, a State, a port, a maritime region ” [ 1 ]. This territorial logic is widely challenged by European policy which tends to favor the market by promoting the capture of quotas by foreign vessels changing flag, in the name of the free movement of capital. Brexit is also a reaction against this practice and should be an opportunity to move towards a new management logic, that of maritime territories where fishery resources are a common good managed democratically. 

There are already elements of such practices between fishermen who often oppose but also know how to find compromises to adapt to realities and allow changes. The model is that of the management of the Bay of Granville, managed by fishermen from Jersey, Brittany and Normandy. There is no doubt that moving to the management of larger units such as the Celtic Sea, the English Channel or the North Sea requires long negotiations and considerable resources. Milestones have already been laid, but under the control of ENGO; the WWF thus piloted a draft management plan for the Celtic Sea, while the Environmental Defense Fund intervened in discussions on the management of the scallop in Normandy and in the English Channel. 

If ENGOs can play their role of protecting biodiversity and the environment, it is not their mandate to take over fisheries management with the financial support of the European Union. Rather, its role should be to promote relations and discussions between fishermen by strengthening the role of the Advisory Committees to give them the mission of managing maritime territories with the responsibility of good management. The NFFO, the organization of English fishermen, expressed the desire to modify management approaches by developing territorial management approaches by rotating fishing and fallow areas. There are therefore bases to get out of a politicized and biased debate on a return of the British to a control of their waters which never existed. 

There are political postures in this debate in Great Britain that have nothing to do with history or realities. The debate must be refocused on the role of fishermen in collective management because, very quickly, Brexit will give way in the United Kingdom as in the European Union to a discourse on blue growth. The future of fishermen is the least of the concerns of the majority of politicians because their interest in the sea mainly concerns other much more promising activities.

Translated by Google:

Thursday April 27, 2017, by LE SANN Alain Fisheries and Development Bulletin n ° 140, May 2017 

Monday morning fish auction in Newlyn.

 

Unity under heavy overcast skies...

in Newlyn harbour this morning...

with heavy showers passing overhead...

though the forecast for much of the day is for some sunshine which should let Rowse's team get on with painting and antifouling the hull of their new crabber-to-be...

young James looks well protected as he over-ends a tier of nets aboard the Bonnie Grace...

with the harbour cafe closed until further notice it's good to see breakfast is being served in the Swordfish...

last minute call back to the office...

as Monday morning's market draws to a close...

which was well supplied with MSC certified hake from the Britannia V...

a handful of bass from the handlineers over the weekend...

the Stelissa's first trip after her refit will be on tomorrow's market...

curled beam trawl Dovers...

plenty of haddock for the James RHi...

and a good shot of plaice including these specimen examples...

while the Cornishman had her share too...

handline mackerel...

and a run of reds...

while young George found a box of medium size ling irresistible...

those tub gurnards keep coming...

and the odd large squid...

name this fish seldom seen on fish shop slabs...

there's often only a handful of cod on the market these days owing partly to the tiny quota boats are expected to fish.