The Oyster Man Of West Mersea - "No deal? No thanks!"

 

Tom Haward is an eighth generation oysterman farming the same ground his family have cultivated oysters on for more than three hundred years. They've seen off various crises and disasters and have always managed to leave an intact business for the next generation, but now with the twofold threat of the Coronavirus pandemic and a no-deal Brexit, the man entrusted with a three hundred year tradition may be the last Haward oysterman of West Mersea.

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Casting into the future of UK fisheries after Brexit

With the weather over the next few days forcing boats to tie up here's a chance to see and hear an informed view of where Brexit could take the fishing industry after January 1st 2021.  This talk from Bryce Stewart amounts to four years of input from commercial fishermen, producer organisations, fish merchants and processors, fishery scientists, NGOs and others.

Sit back, turn up the volume and hear how the fishing and Brexit story steers a course through uncharted waters.

The momentous decision by the UK in 2016 to leave the EU was met with celebration by many in the fishing industry. However, since then the reality and complexity of the UK’s situation has become apparent, exemplified by the fact that four years later, UK fisheries are still managed by the EU.

Nevertheless, UK fisheries management will eventually be reformed through Brexit and this offers an opportunity for greater ambition, for sustainability to take centre stage, and for longer-term thinking. Over the past four years, Bryce Stewart a Marine Ecologist and Fisheries Biologist, has been exploring how this might be achieved by extensively engaging with stakeholders and decision makers. While the developing legislation looks promising, ensuring its effective implementation, and establishing a solid agreement with the EU, is paramount if the UK fishing industry is to have a sustainable and prosperous future.

Bryce is a marine ecologist and fisheries biologist whose work has ranged from temperate estuaries to tropical coral reefs and the deep-sea. The central thread in his research has been to gain an increased understanding of the factors regulating marine populations and communities so as to ensure their sustainable utilisation. 

Recently, his focus has been on how to improve the management of fisheries and marine ecosystems by using predictive models, marine protected areas and by reducing discards. Since 2016 he has been particularly involved with assessing the effects of Brexit on UK fisheries and the marine environment, and helping to plan for future reform of management by working with a wide range of stakeholders and the Governments. 

Another October #FishyFriday in Newlyn.

Lights, camera, action!..

the business of fishing never stops...

Immy all set to take on her trawls... later today...

buyers busy bidding on the is morning's market...

for Dover sole...

sand sole...

John Dory...

some know where they're going...

monk tails were in good supply...

as were these cracking plaice...

the crabbing feet now needs supplying with tons of bait per day, ray carcasses...

mor kis...

but not these cracking mackerel...

or beautiful agged line caught bass...

solitary squid...

there's a name to with...

the finest squid...

and bass...

beautiful big inshore trawl turbot

another big shot of ray from the New Venture, for a small inshore oat she fishes well...

just the one tub gurnard up for auction...

more good ray landings from the inshore fleet...

and a selection of line caught pollack...

just a few hundred of the thousands of pots now worked from Newlyn.

 

Do you think Flagged fishing vessels should land 70% of their fish in the UK? Give the MMO your views online.

At present, UK flagged fishing vessels land and then overland almost all their fish back to their 'home' country. By and large, any landings they do make are token gestures just to meet the minimum requirements they are at present subject. These contribute a net loss to the UK economy amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds of fish annually. 

CONSULTATION ON STRENGTHENING THE FISHERIES ECONOMIC LINK CONDITION IN ENGLAND.

As outlined in the 2018 Fisheries White Paper ‘Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations’, leaving the EU gives the government the opportunity to reconsider the economic link licence condition. The condition applies to all UK registered vessels of 10 metres and over in length that fish against UK quota. It requires these vessels to demonstrate a link, or benefit, to the UK’s economy.

On 13 October 2020, the government launched a public consultation to seek views on a proposal to strengthen the economic link licence condition. We want to ensure that the owners of English registered vessels owners who fish against UK quota provide greater benefits to the UK, and to coastal communities in particular.

The proposal involves increasing the landing requirement to 70% for quota species and strengthening the quota donation requirement to increase the value of quota transferred to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). The proposal also allows vessel owners to use a combination of the two criteria, landings and quota donation, to meet the economic link requirement, recognising the importance of flexibility to support ongoing business practices. Under the proposal the crewing and financial expenditure criteria would be removed as these are considered to generate the lowest economic benefits. The purpose of this proposal is to increase the benefit to the UK from fish caught against England’s allocation of quota. This recognises that fish are a shared national resource, which should be for the benefit of all.

The economic link is a devolved matter, and the policy proposal in this consultation only applies to England.

Subject to the outcome of the consultation, we intend to amend the economic link condition inc

We welcome your views on this policy proposal to strengthen the economic link conditions. We want to learn from your experience and to take your ideas on board. We need your help to get this right.

The consultation can be found on Defra’s website: 

https://consult.defra.gov.uk/fleetmanagement-team/fisheries-economic-linklicencecondition-in-engla/

We welcome your views and comments on the proposals. If you wish to obtain a copy of this consultation, please contact fisheriesengagement@defra.gov.uk

Protest Against The Helen Mary In The North Sea

 

Protest Against The Helen Mary In The North Sea Greenpeace UK activists take action to prevent the Helen Mary, a 117m long super trawler from fishing within the Central Fladen Marine Protected Area (MPA), east of Scotland. 

This comes after the UK Government's repeated failure to ban destructive industrial fishing from the country's MPA network. Greenpeace is calling for all offshore protected areas, including Central Fladen, to be put off limits to industrial fishing by 2030.

Brexit: where is the "fishing war" playing out?

Story courtesy of the FranceCulture website:

 Listen to Brexit again: where is the “fishing war” playing out?  

(If your French is good enough - listen 4 MIN)

Belgian beam trawler Marbi in Newlyn - her catch over-landed back to Belgium by lorry.

More than 50% of the catches of Belgian fishermen are made in British waters. Unloading of peaches in the port of Ostend on October 12. More than 50% of the catches of Belgian fishermen are made in British waters. 

Typically for a Belgian beam trawler, the Marbi fishes much of her time inside UK waters (VesselTracker AIS snapshot May1st-Jun1st 2020)

While an agreement on fishing with the United Kingdom has already been postponed twice, in recent days it has been France which has pinched the strongest: " Fisheries policy" , the Pdt of the Haut region predicted on Monday. of France Xavier Bertrand in the event of a “No Deal”; reflection of the French positions taken in recent days: from Minister Annick Girardin declaring that "Brexit, in France, will be the face of fishing" to Emmanuel Macron promising at the European Summit two weeks ago that fishermen will not be not the “Brexit sacrifices”.

Even if they say they are ready for a "no-deal", Europeans and French are worried about the damage to fleets - because 30% of French fishing is done in British waters - and to the coastal economy: in Boulogne sur Sea in particular, 65-70% of processed fish has passed through the UK.

As for the restrictions on freight, they would also affect businesses that could no longer supply themselves with fresh fish "J 1", warns the mayor of Boulogne and former MinPêche Frédéric Cuvillier: advice to foodies.

The European fishing front cracked?

Paris fears that fishing is the “adjustment variable” (known as Le Point ) of a concession at the last minute from the Commission; because since the summit on October 15, the British have made proposals on other issues and the European fisheries front is cracking:

After the unprecedented agreement with Norway (even though not a member of the EU), Belgium, which achieves 70-80% of its catches in British waters, would also like to obtain its exemption by reactivating a 17th century privilege, original act . More classic, some countries like the Netherlands, which are already big buyers of British fishing quotas, could do without an agreement by investing even more in British fleets.

However, without an agreement with London, Paris still remains in the EU and the 6 remaining fishing countries could well - by virtue of the European agreements - fall back voraciously on its waters full of fish.

Only 0.1% of the respective GDP: a major sticking point in the negotiations?

Fishing represents only 0.1% to 0.5% of GDP, it is true; but what counts economically in these negotiations is the North-East Atlantic where 2/3 of the French fishermen work and almost all the British.

In addition, the British fishermen who denounced the "injustice" of their situation did not do so without reasons, because the United Kingdom, which has some of the most fish-rich waters in the world (>40 species), attracts the whole of Europe and all the figures seem to show a real inequality: EU fishing is more than eight times more important in British waters than the other way around, British vessels only have 1.5% of the fishing quotas in their waters, 53% are held by the 3 largest European companies.

In recent months a fairly strong campaign has taken place in the press against the factory ships (including the huge Lithuanian-flagged Margiris ) that come into their waters, and held responsible for overfishing.

Could London negotiate its own quotas with each?

The fishermen are a problem but what must be understood is the almost indissoluble entanglement of the fishing industries, factories included, and there, the observed "inequality" is reversed: because more than 40% of European catches in UK waters are processed in the UK and ¾ of UK fishing industry exports go to the EU. In other words, what the British allow Europeans to fish, they transform and resell to them, such is the deal that binds them to Europe; and such is the one that they could perpetuate, even extend in the event of no agreement.

In other words, it is the British fishermen, whose numbers have been halved since 1983, who are already being sacrificed by the British fishing industry!

Could Brexit weigh on the European common fisheries policy?

The new fishing quotas for 2021 will be decided in December and the ten-year review of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is due to take place in 2023.

However, without an agreement with the United Kingdom, the increased competition in a lesser fishing area could shatter the CFP, warns the president of the National Fisheries Committee interviewed in La Croix : additional pressure ... Pince-mi et pincer -me are in a boat: pinch-mi and pinch-me fall into the water. Who is left? The CFP to reform?

It's only taken 26 years!

Newlyn has had a regular fish auction for over 500 years, ever since fish were caught in and around Mounts Bay...

originally, fish were laid out on the foreshore rowed in from the boats at anchor, a scene captured by Newlyn School artist Stanhope Forbes in this iconic scene...

much later fish were auctioned on the plinth in front of where the current harbour offices stand...

and eventually under a covered market built in the 1920s, when standing on boxes was obviously de-rigeur practice for buyers...

a scene often captured on canvas by local artist Bernard Evans...

and more recently by Henrietta Graham who will soon have six giant canvases adorning the road side of the fish market depicting a range of fishing industry scenes...

with the auctioneer surrounded by buyers bidding on individual boxes of fish which continues to this day - albeit in a much modernised and refrigerated environment.

That is all set to change on December the 8th 2020.

Twenty six years after a little-known Belgian company, Schelfout (now Aucxis) first gave a presentation to a small selection of Newlyn skippers and fish merchants, Newlyn will finally give way to tradition and connect to the 21st century and host a computer fish auction. The final 'shout' auction will be held on the 5th December at 6am.

The electronic market is being installed by a specialist auction company from Belgium called Aucxis. They also set up the markets in Brixham and Plymouth. 

To buy on the auction buyers will need to log onto a new website where two clock auctions will be run. The software is the same as that used by Brixham Fish Auction. Training will be provided for any buyers who need it in the week prior to the start. Separate invites will be sent out offering training.

Buyers will still be able to come to the market to view fish. Equally buyers will be able to participate in the auction from anywhere with internet access. 

As sales are completed through the auction, porters will place tickets on the bought boxes detailing indicating buyers.  A video conference meeting will allow any questions to be raised that relate to the new service.

For further information contact Stevensons in Newlyn: Tel 01736 362998.