Mark. In my view leaving the EU would be a disaster for both fisheries and the environment. You cannot manage highly mobile or migratory fish stocks within the constraints of a 12 mile limit. I agree with what my colleague and former fisheries minister Richard Benyon has written here.
https://fightingforfishing.anglingtrust.net/2016/06/01/fisheries-facts-and-the-eu/
I agree with you on the value of spatial closures like MCZs and others which have been used to good effect elsewhere. However, quotas have seen cod stocks recover so they have a part to play as well. Cheers Martin
Mr Salter, thank you for the reply-
I am sorry I cannot rely on Mr Benyon's article, there is a lot he fails to mention and only mentions the points that support in, as a piece of propaganda its fine but I would rather have a balanced view.
However, some points are worth considering. It is more complicated the sea than say a small enclosed water but I just believe many species don't roam that much, they hug our coasts because of the rich feeding and spawning available to them. The fact of a 12 mile zone added with larger marine conservation areas would encourage more fish into that zone; roam to our feeding and spawning grounds, if we provided them, more fish!. They could also be commercially fished by our fishermen once very 5 years say as a bonus catch as well as taking the over-spill. Once established they could take this.
The EU regulations on fish is a failure, much is made of the Cod, but has it been at the expense of other species?, putting more pressure on them. Mackerel, Whiting and Pout to mention a few, all no where near what they once were. The EU fishing fleet is huge compared to ours, this 12 mile zone would have an awful lot of pressure lifted from it, producing more fish, cheaper fish; all which can still be exported, more to export probably, increasing jobs and taxes for us. Imagine 20,000 boats taking fish compared to 1000, (rough estimate) wouldn't that make a huge difference to our fish stocks?
Our fishing fleet is half what it once was, I think it would increase again providing more jobs and helping the economy.
Size limits only condemn a species to only reach a certain size and maybe spawn once or twice, anything above that gets wiped out which is the case with Cod and are we just going the same route with Bass. Its taken 60 years to reach a very limited success with Cod, are we going the same route with Bass, the last set of limitations did not work so we just keep increasing them in the hope we may get in front of the game one day.
It worries me that our fisheries ministers and yourself are claiming a success with the past 60 years of policies and therefore not looking any further at any other possibilities, looking at it overall it has not been very successful.
Before we joined the EU I could catch 10lb+ Cod, 2lb Channel Whiting, huge Pout for the cat, big Bass were more prolific, I found a few excellent Plaice beds, many fat Dabs, not to mention the huge Mackerel shoals of 1lb+ fish now reduced to tiny pods of Joeys- and then we joined the EU!-none of that was uncommon, non existent now- Whats it like for our commercial fishermen! I just cannot see how the EU can be considered a success in regard to this in any form.
Why not tell the truth, the EU rules have ruined our once excellent bit of sea and being able to catch a few Scollops in a French bay will never make up for it; I wonder if the are on our MP's list of freebie house of commons dinners along with a free glass of Europes finest wine. Apologies, some thoughts are just too irresistible not to print.
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Mark, I think he's right, if you don't have any international controls and just leave it to the fishermen I would think cod stocks would not be recovering the way they are. Herring in the North Sea were wiped out by over fishing by the herring drifter fleet of hundreds of boats with no controls and fish being turned into fertiliser and pet food. If we leave Europe our politicians would not be interested in imposing conservation measures on our fishermen - how popular would that make them?
Look what happened because of unrestricted fishing on the Grand Banks off Nova Scotia.
The cod were wiped out there. They are recovering now thanks to strict catch limits.
Rob, I don't deny there are examples but Herring are only one, there has to be an overall assessment. I don't believe our politicians would ignore conservation of stocks, there would be a lot more of them to be less conservative about though I imagine. It would also be easier to get agreement with our fishing bodies than the EU as a whole.
There are cases where international cooperation is needed but we can still be part of that as well.
