Fishing Manifesto in 2015 - who's?

[FONT=&quot]“The EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was designed from the beginning to steal our fish. It has ravaged our fishing industry and caused catastrophic environmental damage.”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“We must import fish species such as cod, haddock and huss that our own fishermen are forced to throw overboard – usually dead – because of EU rules. The EU itself estimates 40 per cent of all fish caught are discarded.” ***“While preaching ‘conservation,’ the EU allows industrial fishing techniques” that harm the ecosystem.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We need to leave the CFP so “we can: Establish a 12-mile zone around our coastline for UK fishermen and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone;” “Reverse the rapid decline in our fishing industry and return £2.5 billion a year in fish sales to the UK economy; Enforce ‘no-take’ zones to aid spawning and replenish fish stocks; Protect our coastal eco system by ending destructive industrial fishing practices; End the slaughter of dolphins by banning pair trawler fishing for bass; Work with our fishermen to solve discard and landing issues; Reverse any EU-wide drift-net ban in British waters; Issue permits for foreign trawlers once fish stocks have returned to sustainable levels.”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]UK boats receive a disproportionately small percentage of the English fishing quota. “We will end this injustice.”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Over 750,000 people enjoy sea angling in the UK. It is a profitable hobby for Britain” and thousands of jobs depend on it. “We will vociferously oppose” EU controls on it. “We will ensure sea anglers” “are represented on the Marine Management Organisation.”


Sensible policies to adopt?
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I have long thought that having overfished their own waters EU fishermen turned to ours.

Successive government have overseen the decimation of our fishing fleet while we have been ruled by other countries and done nothing,

The British people have sensibly voted to leave the EU and now as politicians normally do are dragging it out overcomplicating our leaving, the longer it goes on the more of our sea fish stocks will disappear, time for us to control our own limits as we used to do.

I'd hazard a guess the EU will threaten to apply tariffs to UK exports of fish if we prevent EU fishermen from fishing British waters and since there is no UK market for a lot of species that the UK fishing fleet catch the UK isn't in a strong position to negotiate. As the UK fishing industry brings in less than 0.5% of British GDP I doubt the UK government will be particularly interested in playing hardball with the EU over fishing rights, so I doubt anything will change.

stillwater blue said:

I'd hazard a guess the EU will threaten to apply tariffs to UK exports of fish if we prevent EU fishermen from fishing British waters

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That's not a bad thing if it keeps some of the catch on UK fish counters, trying to get chip shop Haddock in this neck of the woods is nigh on impossible these days.

Just that horrible, slimy Cod stuff... mg:

They have just raised the cod quota in a few areas by 15% where the cod might be just about making a comeback. This bothers me, its the maximum they could get away with, 25% would be too much, 20% a bit dodgy so its 15%. Not leave it for a couple of years to see how it goes or go carefully, 5% a year over the next 3 years or every couple of years maybe to nurture it and see how it goes. The thinking appears to me to be, go get em boys, pay day and sod the conservation. They will just keep raising the quotas by the maximum amounts they think they can get away with until they go too far. They never have had much success in 50 or 60 years and I don't have much confidence they ever will. We should be able to do it a lot better.