NEW DATA NOW AVAILABLE TO VIEW ON THE MARINE PLANNING PORTAL

More data has now been added to the Marine Management Organisation’s interactive and online map.

Once registered, users can select (fixed and mobile fishing gear and intensity) and then use the boxes to add comments directly to the web site.

Be sure to register with the marine planning portal which allows anyone logging on to view a range of information and locations – from details of wind farm developments to conservation areas - even fishing operations – and understand how busy our seas have become.


New information has just gone live for the following uses:

· Marine Protected Areas

· Defence and national security 

· Energy production and infrastructure development

· Ports and shipping

· Marine aggregates

· Marine dredging and disposal

· Subsea cables

· Fishing activity

· Aquaculture

· Tourism and recreation

· Marine ecology and biodiversity

· Historic environment.

Plan-making is already underway in the East Offshore and East Inshore marine plan areas - from Flamborough Head to Felixstowe – with a total of 10 marine plans to be drawn up for England over the next decade to inform and guide marine regulators and users.


The planning portal offers an easy way to be involved and contribute to marine planning. Using the controls, you can locate and then zoom in on particular areas or activities by selecting the specific data you want to see. You can also post comments and make suggestions on new data or information to inform the plans in the East of England, which are expected to take two years to finalise.


We hope as many people as possible will get online, look at the map and share any insights they may have on the evidence we will be using. The MMO will also be running a series of workshops in the East of England over the coming year which will provide opportunities for others, including those who are not online, to have their say.


You can also contact the planning team by telephone on 0191 376 2790, or email: planning@marinemanagement.org.uk

CFPO news - NFFO elects new chairman Paul Trebilcock.

Cornwall Fish Producers Organisation stalwart, Paul Trebilcock.

NFFO Elects New Chairman

The NFFO has elected Paul Trebilcock, Chief Executive of the Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation as its new Chairman. Paul will take over the Chair next summer and in the meantime will hold the position of NFFO Chairman-Elect.

“Paul is the well-known and highly active Chief Executive of the Cornish PO and although he is probably the youngest Chairman that we have had, he comes with a wealth of experience”, said current Chairman Arnold Locker.

“We try to ensure that if we have a North Sea President, we have an Area VII Chairman and this appointment continues that useful balance”.

“Paul will be taking over at a truly critical time for our industry, with CFP reform, marine conservation zones and other vital decisions taken on his watch”.

Last week the NFFO met with the MMO for the first time to discuss a wide range of operational policing and monitoring issues.

Wide Range of Issues addressed at meeting with MMO

THE National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO)  and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) met recently at the MMO’s headquarters in Newcastle.

The NFFO said that a wide range of issues were covered including

• The design application and enforcement of management measures within marine conservation zones and special areas of conservation
• Electronic logbooks, including the development and availability of an integrated VMS/e-logbook system
• The performance of the English EFF programme
• Progress in implementing the new EU Control Regulation, including the weighing of catch provisions, 10% margin of tolerance, engine power measurement and the marking of pots
•  The application of Fisheries Administrative penalties
• New MMO arrangements to ensure that all infringements are dealt with in a timely and consistent way
•  Delivery and practicality issues associated with the Defra consultation on the future of under-10m quota management
• The MMO’s compliance and enforcement strategy
• Voluntary net tagging that could potentially reduce the impact of boardings at sea
• The impact of boardings on fishing operations

The NFFO said: “The NFFO and the MMO are agreed that there is a continued need  for pragmatic and proportionate enforcement that, so far as possible, separates minor infringements from determined and recurrent rule-breaking. Fisheries Administrative Penalties have helped to streamline the process and a new system of monthly reviews of all fisheries offences is being implemented to bring consistency and to ensure that prosecutions if they are to happen are brought forward in a timely fashion.

“The NFFO gave examples of boardings at sea which could have  been handled with greater regard  for fishing operations and the MMO welcomed this feedback. . It was agreed to reinstate liaison days with the Royal Navy’s Fisheries Protection Squadron, with port visits by fisheries protection vessels in the Irish Sea, Shoreham and Hartlepool.  The potential for repeated prosecutions for infringement of the 10% margin of tolerance –particularly for small quantities - was raised and the need for a reasonable, pragmatic and risk based approach was underlined by the Federation.

“It was agreed to discuss further the details of a voluntary net tagging scheme which potentially could reduce the time and anxiety of net measurements at sea.

“The navigational chaos that could result from implementation of the new Control Regulation requirements on flags, radar reflectors and lights on dhans marking pots was emphasised. The huge cost and navigational consequences of vessels confronting a ‘city of light’ and a ‘snowstorm of radar signals’ underlined the need for a practical solution.

“The Federation said that this  was a constructive meeting which aimed to make the best out of a management system that is over-complex, in places fundamentally irrational, and certainly far removed from the practicalities of fishing; but is the law - until that law can be changed. The MMO has faced a difficult baptism of fire but the meeting showed that there is at least a strong will to temper the rough edges of the CFP without abandoning the core purpose of enforcing fisheries regulations.

The Federation will be meeting the MMO to continue this dialogue at regular intervals.”

Fresh Newlyn crab meat from M and R Crab.

Newlyn has seen the fleet of boats (local and visiting) that fish for brown crab and scallops increase in size over the last five years - to such an extent that shellfish landings now amount for nearly a fifth of the port's total income. One company to take advantage of these more regular supplies, is the Newlyn family firm of M and R Crab. Started by Mike and Rose Dyer - who will best be remembered by some for their part in the mackerel handlline fishery back in the 1970s when they supplied many crews with sets of handmade mackerel 'feathers' - a real cottage industry at the time.

Inshore brown crab straight from the pot.

With the introduction of the mackerel box and changes in mackerel fishing patterns, the family business diversified and formed M and R Crab to handle shellfish for the small fleet of inshore potters back in 1982.  Since then they have specialised in hand picking crab to order, often delivered within hours of being cooked and picked!

Dan and Mark Dyer

Responsible Fishing Scheme - Today's more discerning markets increasingly demand high standards in quality and sourcing fish from ethically fished boats -so these days the business runs in the safe hands of son Mark and son-in-law Dan who work closely with the fleet of RFS accredited Rowse crabbers in the port as well as a myriad of inshore and small cove boats working pots around the rocky coastline of West Penwith.

The boys shun the speed and ease of mechanically picked crab which results in a dry meat - hand picked remains moist and succulent and retains more flavour.  Early orders for fresh MandR crab meat can be taken online or over the phone to allow for the daily delivery service to Cornwall and the UK.

From Boulogne -Fishermen strongly opposed the principle of transferable quotas.

(Translated from the original) 


"Fishermen and Boulogne Etaploise consider unacceptable the proposals (see below) of the European Commissioner for Fisheries, the Greek Damanaki. For the latter, fish stocks are overexploited because of "overcapacity of the fleet" in the clear there are too many boats chasing too few fish.

The annual contribution of artisanal fisheries currently Boulogne is about 35000t. Fewer boats will also mean a drop in tonnage landed and affect the entire sector and processing companies in the tidal zone Capécure who need a fresh fish sold in auction. The economic and social reform in Brussels seems to have overlooked."
Big difference tomorrow, with this system, "quotas belong to the boat," says Marc Perrault, head of St. Catherine Laboure, a trawler of 24.50 m. The commission tries to reassure by saying that these quotas "would not be between boats of the same country and even between vessels of similar size." Pierre-Georges Dachicourt is "dressing to the final liberalization while. We know that situations between fishermen of the same port are not the same. Those who do better have the money to buy the quotas of the most fragile. 

But what will become of them? Everyone can not be pizzaïolo (sic) "The resale of quotas could lead to speculation (sale to the highest bidder) and a takeover by industrial fisheries, which are themselves responsible for the exploitation of the sea with more quota concentrated in the same hands, this phenomenon will only increase and it will lead ultimately to the opposite effect to that intended, that is to say less pressure on the resource.To reduce their number, Damanaki calls with the Committee on Fisheries, which was in the air for a few months time, the introduction of transferable fishing rights or fishing concessions exchanged between boats. A fisherman who wants to stop because it is close to retirement or because its activity is no longer economically viable could transfer all of its right to fish. "We do get large-scale capitalism and over time, we will remove small-scale fisheries for the benefit of owners or large pension funds who buy fishing rights, denounces Pierre-Georges Dachicourt, Berckois and Chairman of National Fisheries. There will be financial abuse detrimental to the profession. 

All the Icelandic fishing owned by U.S. pension funds and it did not improve its situation, far from it. "Currently, quotas are managed by producer organizations as cooperative maritime Etaploise (CME) at Etaples or Boulogne From North.

Article courtesy of La Voix du Nord.

MCS When it's closer to home - will you be affected?

With the increasingly significant changes and possible restrictions being imposed on fishing opportunites in the region, this project might be a suitable forum for fishermen from both sides of the Channel (la Manche) to cooperate and fight for their livelehoods together. A good starting place for the latest information from the MCS can be found here.

The extent of the EDMI project - with the largest ports, Brixham, Newlyn and Plymouth  on the very fringes.

Project Context and strategic dimension:

The context for the project centres on the various strategic interests operating at different scales with the (English) Channel as their focal point of reference. These interests demonstrate an increasing need to co-operate far beyond the eligible area of the current Franco-British INTERREG IIIA programme.
During the current period of increasing European integration, this North-West part of the continent is re-configuring itself in relation to previously accepted imperatives, as well as adding in new ones brought about by societal change.

3 strategic dimensions.

The English Channel is the busiest maritime thoroughfare in the world

• More than 600 vessel movements both through and across the Straits (of Dover) every day.
• It is one of Europe's gateways to the world, and North-South an important communications route between Britain and Continental Europe.
• One of the prime considerations of this strategic dimension is safety, repeatedly evidenced by recent accidents at sea.
• The strategic interests provided by economic development are less immediately obvious, but nonetheless they represent the backcloth for the future growth of regions bordering the Channel.
• Maritime traffic will continue to increase, so what powers of imagination, what capabilities, will be required of English and French stakeholders alike to exploit this situation?

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From tea to technology - The blogging Mission skipper!

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Newlyn Fishermen's Mission skipper Keith Dixon (recently of Great British Menu fame) has begun to blog! With Mission HQ planning to close Newlyn's iconic Mission building sometime in the future, Keith is doing all he can to diversify and reach out to the community using the latest technology tools - hence the Newlyn Mission Blog. Today's latest posting reports on a visit by 12 children from Chernobyl - yes Chernobyl - who enjoyed the best start possible to the day - a hearty Mission fry-up!


The Mission's blog can be found on the Through the Gaps web site as a page link here.

CAMIS overview document.

Open publication - Free publishing - More camis