Final Report: The English Discard Ban Trial

Through the Gaps reader survey "In or out of the EU"

There is much interest being generated in the idea of the UK coming out of the EU. 

UKIP's Nigel Farage has touched a nerve in the country and sparked a definite yes response to that question reflected in recent elections favouring what his party's anti Europe manifesto. 

But is that enough? 

Would the fishing industry in Cornwall, tied as it is to the rest of the county's well-being, be in the position it is today were it not part of the EU?

How important was the fishing industry to Ted Heath's Tory government in 1973 when it was traded in order to secure EEC membership? Very, very, but not in a way that would have been approved of had the industry been aware.

"Another revealing measure of how deeply the culture of deceit had now set in was the curious story of the common fisheries policy, and the Heath Government’s response to the crude ambush set up by the Six to ensure that, as part of their price of entry, the four applicant countries, Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Norway, would have to hand over to the Community their fishing waters, the richest in the world. (all documents cited on the CFP are from PRO files in FO 30/656-9)

On the very day the applications went in, June 30 1970, the Six hastily approved the principle that member-states should be given “equal access” to each other’s fishing waters, under Brussels control.

The point was that, because this had now become part of the acquis communautaire, the body of existing Community law, the applicant countries would have to accept it as a fait accompli. Within a few years, as everyone knew, national fishing waters were due to be extended out under international law to 200 miles.

Because the waters belonging to the four applicant states would then contain most of the fish in European waters, this would give the Six an astonishing prize.

In fact the Six knew their new fisheries policy was not even legal. Among the Foreign Office papers released in 2001 was an internal Council of Ministers document, dating from June1970, which shows how desperate the Brussels lawyers had been to find some article in the Treaty of Rome which could be used to authorise such a policy. There was none. The policy therefore had no legal justification, and other papers show that the Foreign Office knew this too."

But so determined was Mr Heath not to offend his prospective new partners that he decided not to challenge them. Britain would simply accept the illegal new fisheries policy, even though this would mean handing over one of her greatest renewable natural assets and would spell disaster for a large part of her fishing fleet.

Gradually the British fishermen got some idea that they were about to be sacrificed, and in the closing months of 1970 various MPs for fishing constituencies wrote to ministers asking what on earth was going on. They were fobbed off with evasive replies. Indeed, as the recently released papers show, civil servants eventually worked out a careful form of words, intended to reassure the fishermen that “proper account would be taken of their interests”. But behind the scenes, as a Scottish Office memo put it on November 9, ministers were being told how important it was not to get drawn into detailed explanations of just what problems might lie ahead for the fishermen because, “in the wider UK context, they must be regarded as expendable”.

The following year the White Paper promised that Britain would not sign an accession treaty until the Common Market’s fisheries policy was changed, Geoffrey Rippon repeated this promise to Parliament and to the Tory Party conference. But in November Mr Heath realised that time was running out. Unless he accepted the fishing policy as it stood, his plans for Britain’s entry in January 1973 would have to be abandoned. He instructed Rippon to give way, and when Rippon was questioned about this in the House of Commons on December 13, he answered with a straight lie. He claimed Britain had retained complete control over the waters round her coastline, knowing that this was simply not true. So barefaced was this deceit over fishing rights that successive governments and fisheries ministers would continue to obfuscate the truth of what had been done for the next three decades."

Full article here:

So, how important to today's government  (think MMO) - (think who represented the industry last week in Brussels) - is the fishing industry?


 

Full of Festive Spirit, the Fishwives Choir are back in Cornwall this weekend

 Hi everyone, the girls are back in Cornwall this weekend!

 Here's where you can find them:

 Dec 5th - The Golden Lion, Padstow about 7.30pm  Dec 6th - Padstow Christmas onstage 2.pm  Dec 6th - The London Inn Padstow Saturday night 

They'll be passing the bucket round for Fishermen's Mission so bring plenty of loose change! Find out more here:

Gear trials for the Mayflower in Mount's Bay.

The Newlyn ring netter has carried out the first set of fishing gear trials after completing her fitting out and rigging in Newlyn.

The Mayflower alongside the first boat, Resolute in the Ocean fleet

UK was led by “clueless” minister in Brussels, industry boss says

A Scottish fishing chief has questioned the wisdom of sending a “clueless” junior minister from the House of Lords to international talks.

Iain MacSween said the choice of Lord de Mauley to head up the UK team at the recent EU Fisheries Council in Brussels was like sending Partick Thistle Football Club’s “reserve” team to take on the superstars of Real Madrid. Lord de Mauley is “no (Christiano) Ronaldo” is such a negotiating contest, Mr MacSween, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation (SFO), added.

The Prime Minster’s office defended the decision yesterday, saying ministers always acted in the best interests of the UK.

Eton-educated Lord de Mauley, a baron who served as opposition whip for the Tories from 2009-10 and is a former shadow minister for two government departments, led the UK’s Fisheries Council team in the absence of Fisheries Minister George Eustice.

Then first minister Alex Salmond was furious about the “snub” and complained about it in a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Scottish Government has frequently argued that Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead should head up the UK team in these circumstances, given the size and economic importance of the industry north of the border.

Commenting on this month’s Fisheries Council in his latest letter to SFO members, Mr MacSween said: “Presumably his (Lord de Mauley’s) bosses, the environment secretary and the fisheries minister, were too busy to attend, which is a bit strange as you would have thought they would put an important meeting such as this in their diaries. 

“By all accounts his contribution to the debate was short and apparently confined to reading a note handed to him by one of his officials.

“Surely it would have made sense to have someone represent the industry who actually knows something about what they are talking about.

“If you send someone to the meeting who is clueless, why should you be surprised when you do not get the result you want.

“What we have just seen is a bit like sending Partick Thistle reserves to play Real Madrid and actually expect to win.

“The baron is no Ronaldo when it comes to fisheries”.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The government takes its responsibility to act for all parts of the UK extremely seriously.

“Our ministers put our country’s interests first and foremost in all they do.

“We have consistently and successfully worked with the Scottish Government to argue for and to secure the best deals for our fishing industry. Their hand is strengthened by being part of the UK.”

Free Geological Data from beneath the waves

Just published today by the British Geological Survey - free sampling and other geloogical dat from the Contiental Shelf - explore the website here:


The British Geological Survey (BGS) has today published an online database of freely viewable and downloadable Marine Geoscience Data, available through the Offshore GeoIndex, covering the whole UK Continental Shelf. It holds approximately 80,000 sampling locations that have a range of valuable geochemical, geological, geotechnical and sediment data including PDF files of legacy scanned data sheets and borehole logs. Offshore data like these are important for research into areas such as carbon storage, energy resources, planning, habitat mapping and conservation.
BGS

“Geology isn’t just under our feet; it’s under our seas too. We want this data to benefit the whole geoscience community by aiding research and inspiring new spinout products.” said Bob Gatliff, BGS Director of Energy & Marine Geoscience. “The marine environment is an ever increasingly important area of scientific study as it is worth more than £48.6 billion to the UK economy, which is predicted to double by 2030. At 3.5 times the UK land mass, it is an area with vast economic and environmental potential”.

Until now these Marine Geoscience Data have been an internal BGS resource used to underpin our range of Digital Information Products*, which are made available via MAREMAP** and the BGS website. As part of the BGS OpenGeoscience initiative the data have today been made available to the public and the Marine community to use under an Open Government Licence (OGL).

The data have been collected as part of the BGS regional and local mapping programme as well as from third-parties. Included in the data are around 33 thousand sediment data records, 18 thousand geochemical values and core photos of 8000 Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) offshore hydrocarbon wells. 

A detailed over view of all the data available, together with other useful information, can be found online here.

Fishermen, Cefas need you and your ideas for funded projects - get involved now!

Spread the word! This is a fantastic opportunity for for UK fishermen - either as an individual or as a like-minded group - talk about it at sea - what can you do to get involved? - speak to someone at Cefas if you need to know more.


FSP Contract Office:

Cefas 
Pakefield Road 
Lowestoft, 
Suffolk NR33 0HT 
UK Tel: +44 (0)1502 527706 
Email: michael.fox@cefas.co.uk, fsp@cefas.co.uk

Cefas Fisheries Science Partnership

We want to involve more fishermen in commissioning science for projects that will benefit the industry through improved fisheries data or stock assessments and through innovative ideas on gear technology.

To achieve these objectives, the programme will:

• deliver demonstration projects that support implementation of Common Fisheries Policy reform, particularly on the landing obligation 
• provide information from commercial fishing catches on key stocks to supplement data sources traditionally used in ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Seas) assessments 
• investigate concerns raised by fishermen on scientific assessments or on fish stocks not currently assessed 
• investigate innovative scientific methods and/or more selective/environmentally friendly fishing methods 
• support the work of the Regional Advisory Councils, e.g. Northwestern Waters Regional Advice Council 

The programme will mainly support projects in UK waters, focusing predominantly on the English fisheries and involve fishing vessels able to take part in the projects.

Seeking project ideas for 2015/16 

We are inviting FSP project proposals for the next financial year, 2015/16. Project ideas should be practical, able to deliver a real solution, come from fisherman and meet at least one of the FSP objectives above.

The FSP panel will be particularly interested to see proposals that will help the implementation of Common Fisheries Policy reform, especially innovative approaches to the forthcoming demersal landing obligation. Examples include, but are not restricted to:

• mixed-fishery and regional approaches 
• selectivity improvements (including new gear) 
• discard-survivability studies 
• spatial adaptations (which means 
• emerging issues in support of the Advisory Councils (ACs). 

Project ideas need to be practical, able to deliver a real solution and be completed during 2015/16.

Turning a proposal idea into a scientifically deliverable project is not always easy, so proposers may wish to contact our FSP Contracts Office who can refer applicants to a Cefas scientist for advice related to a particular idea.

A form (in Word format, 64KB) to help proposers construct a suitable project by prompting the essential required details is available for downloading here.

Please note: Submission of a project is not a guarantee that the idea will be funded. Further, all project ideas deemed suitable are then commissioned through a competitive process.

Ideas for proposals for projects must be submitted to the FSP Contracts Office by Friday 23rd January 2015. Once a project idea form is received at Cefas, a check will be done to see if all the details have been provided (locality, time of work, vessel size and type, gear etc.) after which the proposer may be contacted for further details. Those project ideas which are confirmed as suitable will then be subject to a competitive tender process with the projects Invitation to Tender being published on this website. Invitation to Tender documents will be available for downloading from this website along with copies of draft contract and terms and conditions, they can also be obtained from the address below.

Please note that there are strict deadlines for tender submissions.

FSP Contract Office:

Cefas 
Pakefield Road 
Lowestoft, 
Suffolk NR33 0HT 
UK Tel: +44 (0)1502 527706 
Email: michael.fox@cefas.co.uk, fsp@cefas.co.uk