Open letter from NAPA to politicians, calling for concrete action on sustainable pelagics management at the 2021 Coastal States meeting

 

NORTH ATLANTIC PELAGIC ADVOCACY GROUP (NAPA)


Dear Minister,

Great to have your attention.

Just a reminder from the global marketplace for seafood: we want to see sustainable fishing in the Northeast Atlantic.

As a collective of businesses with a major share of Northeast Atlantic pelagic purchasing, the North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group (NAPA) is directly invested in the responsible, science-driven management of Northeast Atlantic mackerel, Atlanto-scandian herring, and North East Atlantic blue whiting.

Setting catch levels above the established scientific advice for these stocks, year on year, is an unacceptable threat to shared-stock fisheries.

The barriers are political – so we thought we’d write to a politician.

The solutions are laid-out in long-term management strategies, based on robust science and designed to ensure responsible, ethical, sustainable seafood for consumers. We want to see Coastal States taking a leadership position and committing to science-based management.

As one of the decision-makers in the management of these fisheries, we are calling on you to direct your national delegate at the upcoming 2021 Coastal States and NEAFC meetings to:

Follow the ICES advice

All NEAFC contracting parties should ensure that the overall catch for each stock does not exceed scientific advice.

Implement Management Plans

Collaborative, multi‐annual management should be the default approach when it comes to shared-stock fisheries. All stakeholders benefit from agreeing to and working toward long‐term sustainable management objectives. That includes responsible quota sharing arrangements and sustainable harvest strategies, a regular review process, and any necessary steps to transition to a new and robust system of long-term fisheries management. In short: use the information at hand to put systems in place to protect i) the environment ii) this valuable resource and iii) business confidence and security.

Resolve allocation issues

Contracting parties should prioritise resolving the allocation issues around these stocks and re-establish the NEAFC Working Group on Allocation as a first step. In addition, a dispute resolution mechanism should be employed at both the Coastal States meeting and NEAFC.

As a body of over 40 retailers, food-service companies, and suppliers from across the world, we want to underscore in the strongest terms that the current situation in the Northeast Atlantic is unsustainable. The inability of Coastal States to follow the scientific advice and reach agreement on quotas has thus far resulted in the loss of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for these stocks. What’s more, your inaction is driving the supply chain to re-think their purchasing decisions:

‘If these fisheries continue to fail to deliver the requirements of our sourcing policy and cannot agree on quota allocation and the implementation of an effective dispute mechanism, we will re-evaluate our sourcing choices with a view to only select Coastal States championing sustainability that actively support NAPA.’ – Labeyrie-Fine-Foods, NAPA Member

‘We are calling on the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) Coastal States to agree quotas in line with scientific advice and implement a long-term science-based management plan for blue whiting. … Should progress falter, or the FIP fail, we will continue our stand to not source fishmeal containing uncertified blue whiting.’ – Skretting Norway, NAPA Member

‘In the event of a failure of the Blue Whiting FIP, Aquascot will review our sourcing policy for feed used by our Scottish salmon farming suppliers and will aim to source this product only from Coastal States that are reviewing their fishery management plans in line with NAPA’s recommendations.’ – Aquascot, NAPA Member

Fisheries is a complex world. This decision is simple.

As we approach the Coastal States meeting in October, we will be watching.

Regards,

The North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group

NORTHEAST ATLANTIC COASTAL STATES MEETING 2021

DATE: 27 September 2021

First #FishFriday in Newlyn for October.

Seems that most of the fleet are at sea apart from the crabbers and other boats between trips...

master monger sorting fish in a flash...

this morning's market saw plenty of megrim soles and a few witches...

with hake from that stalwart of the netting fleet the Ajax...

along with some superb bigger fish from the Ygraine...

both ends of the wonderful fish that is the goggle-eyed ling....

black bream...

blue shark...

monk tails...

smoothounds, known locally as, 'pissers'...

beautiful bass...

and our man Shane has been in the mackerel mix again...

the ever-changing fleet colours...

not many boats are painted green, it being considered an unlucky colour by some...

bit of early-morning yarning...

home to slipway engineers, SRC Marine...

as the sun breaks with what was forecast earlier in the week and gets the first #FishFriday of October off to a flying start...

though it seems there's always small words of comfort on offer from one of those ever-effervescent St Ives chaps...

the big fellas at rest... 

Listen while you work: Radio 4's Farming Today featured former UK fisheries negotiator Gary Taylor who carried out research commissioned by the NFFO warning that British fishing will lose £300 million in the next five years, rather than gaining £148 million as the Government promised. The figures come from the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations which says a cost benefit analysis of the impact of Brexit shows there are few winners in the UK fleet, and that an ‘opportunity has been squandered.’ 

NFFO Demands Transparency over TCA Deal

Are the storm clouds a-brewing? 

Brexit Trade & Cooperation Agreement 2021

The UK fishing industry was shocked at the scale of the UK’s capitulation on fishing on Christmas Eve, 2020. This was a decision made at the highest reaches of Government. And it was made, despite the promises, commitments and assurances made during the Referendum Campaign and throughout the negotiations with the EU. Additional quota shares secured from the EU came nowhere close to what any self-respecting coastal state might expect as their legal right. Access to fish in UK waters – a key bargaining lever in annual fisheries negotiations – was ceded to the EU for 6 years (at least). We even failed to secure an exclusive 12 mile limit, something that most coastal states take for granted.

What we didn’t get and still haven’t received from Government is a clear statement of what has been gained and what has been lost as we left the EU.

In the wake of the TCA the Government made the claim that we were £148 million better off – although it was clear from the beginning that the incoming quota was very unevenly distributed and that there were areas where we had acute quota shortages. There seemed to be a lot of spin involved. Then as the year progressed things got worse:

No international swaps until the second half of the year No reciprocal agreements with Norway or Faroes Problems in exporting fish to the EU (some like higher export costs and admin were foreseen as we were leaving the single market and customs union – some, like the EU ruling on bivalve molluscs, were not) As we approach the next cycle of negotiations for a fisheries agreement for 2022, we considered it important to have a clear understanding of where we are: what has been achieved, what has been lost. For that reason, we asked Gary Taylor, an experienced fisheries negotiator, with long experience in the field, to undertake an analysis on our behalf. The brief was to make his best estimate of the gains and losses and the winners and losers in this whole process.

To be clear, we would much prefer the Government to publish its definitive cost benefit analysis in a transparent way for public scrutiny and debate. In the absence of that information, this is our best estimate.

 

Full story courtesy of the NFFO.

Jersey fishing - More French fishing licences issued

 

A FURTHER 64 permanent fishing licences are to be issued to French vessels to fish in Jersey's waters on top of 47 already licensed boats, the government has announced.

In addition to these, the skippers of 31 continental vessels, which have provided some of the historical fishing data required but not yet enough to be fully licensed, are to receive temporary access permits. They have until January next year to hand over the outstanding information.

A total of 75 vessels which have not met the criteria for a licence have been given 30 days to cease fishing in the Island's waters. However, in this time, the government will still consider any historical fishing data which they provide.

Under the terms of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement, which Jersey signed up to last December, any EU fishing boats wishing to fish in Jersey post-Brexit had to provide evidence to show they have operated in Jersey for at least ten days in any of the last three full years.

The deadline for handing over the evidence had been set for 30 April but was extended on two occasions – with the final deadline being 30 September.

Tensions peaked in May when a flotilla of Breton and Norman vessels travelled en masse to Jersey and stopped two cargo ships from departing.

External Relations Minister Ian Gorst, said: 'Jersey has maintained a pragmatic, reasonable and evidence-based approach throughout, extending the transitional period on a number of occasions until now, despite not being required by the TCA to do so.

'We’re now in a position to ensure those boats which have fished these waters are able to continue doing so, and therefore it is time, next month, for our transitional arrangements to come to a close.'

He added: 'We thank the UK, EU and authorities in France for their efforts to provide us with the additional data, and I’m keen to pay tribute to the tireless work of our officers to pursue the information, collate it and analyse it. We will continue to have an open door to further data and evidence of fishing activity, including for vessels which have already been considered, and we look forward to working collaboratively to resolve the remaining complex issues.'

Story courtesy of the Jersey Evening Post.

The Politics of Division

Fishing: Sustainability and Environment.

It is not that difficult to exploit divisions in the fishing industry. We are a complex, multi-faceted, diverse industry, targeting a wide range of different species. We operate inshore and offshore with a bewildering range of gears, fishing from different ports, in vessel sizes that range from under 8 metres to over 100 metres. Quota shares are always divisive because they are a zero-sum game. More fundamentally, who receives a licence to fish and what kind of licence, involves political and administrative choices that can generate much heat and friction within the fishing industry.

Enter Greenpeace. An organisation that lost its founding purity decades ago and operates as an aggressive corporate body which competes in a crowded field with other better-connected NGOs and young upstarts like Extinction Rebellion. Greenpeace’s signature campaign mode is the spectacular publicity event. Not for them dialogue, evidence, shared objectives and cooperation. The body with peace in its title has spurned multiple offers for dialogue. Its preference is for identifying the splits within the industry into which it can pour its poison.

There are and always will be in our industry the gullible or the cynical who can see advantage in associating with the playground bully. Not for them concerns for the livelihoods or lives of other fishermen. They are prepared to line up with a criminal body which endangers the lives of other fishermen by dumping boulders on fishing grounds. That, for them, is an OK thing to do.

At a time when 38% of UK waters are designated as one kind or another of marine protected areas and offshore windfarms are planned to expand by at least a factor of four within the coming decade, with the potential to displace hundreds if not thousands of fishermen from their customary grounds, one would have thought the case was never stronger for industry unity. But no, Greenpeace have persuaded some that expelling midwater trawlers, whose gear never touches the bottom from MPAs should be a priority – simply because they are big.

It doesn’t take much imagination or insight to understand that these are false friends – who will turn on any fleet segment if it can generate publicity and donations. Every fishing gear has an environmental impact. We catch fish. That is our job. We do it to feed people. Our task as an industry is to manage and minimise those impacts and to sustain livelihoods and communities at the same time. If we turn on each other, like any group, political party, or nation, we will go down.

All of this is not to deny that when large-scale, efficient, fishing capacity is deployed, management and monitoring must be robust if we are to maintain sustainable fisheries. There are concerns about what is happening in the Thames Estuary, where huge infrastructure projects have disturbed sediments in recent years. Many NFFO members have expressed concern over the rapid expansion of the fly-shooting fleet in the Channel. The inshore crab and lobster fisheries on the south-east coast have collapsed. Cod have moved north (but on the other hand, the biomass of North Sea plaice is above anything seen in the historic record). It is also worth remembering, in contrast to Greenpeace’s catastrophe narrative, that most of our stocks have been moving steadily in the right direction for almost two decades now. The point is that scapegoating one fleet segment does not amount to a coherent management strategy, or adequately address this complex of issues.

So, there is a choice to make. Sign up for the dubious charms of the divisive snake-oil salesmen or work with other fishers to make things better. The latter is not an easy road. It involves cooperation and compromise. It involves listening to the other side and finding a way through. It involves engaging with fisheries scientists and fisheries administrators on the detail of fisheries management. Above all it involves respect for other fishers whatever the size of vessel, home port or gear used. Inevitably, there are tensions and frictions. And strong individuals. And arguments. But without that respect and the cooperation it generates, we are lost my friends, we are lost.

Andrew Pascoe

Fisherman and President of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations

Making the most of the fine weather.

It promises to be a fine day today for those boats heading away from Newlyn...

into the rising sun...

while it's one of the powerful deck lights on the crabber...

as Sid's brother Sean takes the Karen of Ladram...

away for another hake netting trip...

on the move.

 

Final Monday morning market in September.

There's a definite shift in the weather this morning with more than a hint of autumn in the chilly early morning air...

every trawler skipper's dread, the trawl in the prop, bunged-up...

ling make good eating...

as do the big flats like brill...

tcepahalapods are still thin on the ground...

fish of the day, red gurnard - ask your local fishmonger to get some in for you to try...

pristine line caught pollack...

the one beam trawler that landed put ashore monk tails...

megrim sole...

and lemons...

while Tom picked up a cracking JD...

one of the bass boys in his new ship pitched in with a good haul of bass...

those small mesh nets work only too well for the likes of red mullet...

there were even a few mackerel around this morning...

Monday morning fish on the move...

good to see one of the local shags makes diving for his breakfast look easier than Suarez ...

late morning landing of Cornsh sardines...

by the Pelagic Marksman...

there's a good chance that today will see people caught out in the odd heavy but short shower..

the big fella has landed.