Written evidence submitted by Dr Louis Murray (FSH0203)

Preamble.

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the European Union is an abject failure. It has caused decades of damage to British fishing interests and the on-shore communities that traditionally support them.The withdrawal of the UK from the EU – commonly referred to as BREXIT- provides a historic opportunity to reclaim British fishing and to begin the long process of reconstructing an industry crucial to an island/maritime nation. My answers to the five main questions posed for the consultation must of necessity be synoptic and focused in character.

Q1. What are the most important considerations for a new UK government developed fishing industry?

Answer. Re-definition of British territorial waters and the expansion of regulated commercial fishing zones around the UK coast. Full legal protection given to an enlarged fishing zone. Primary fishing rights to be established for all British home-ported and registered vessels. Strict secondary  licence arrangements for foreign fishing vessels wishing to fish commercially in British waters. Particular concentration of effort in rebuilding the fishing industry in three main ports on the Irish Sea coast – Milford Haven – Fleetwood – Whitehaven. Abandonment of the EU quota system and  its replacement by  science-informed and sustainable annual catch targets for deep-water fishing companies. Inshore fishing (up to 12 miles out) to be exempt from catch targets and be as ‘light-regulated’ as possible.

Q2. What changes and challenges are likely post-BREXIT?

Answer. Access to British waters will undoubtedly be sought by industrial fishing companies in Spain, France, Denmark and other countries. Historically, such companies have been rapacious in terms of fishing techniques used; over-indulged in respect of the EU quota system; and have often enjoyed market comparative advantages deliberately skewed to their interest. All that has to stop and the UK government has to establish clear policies in respect of granting foreign-owned and crewed vessels licences to fish in British waters. The British fishing fleet should be gradually expanded and supported on what was once its traditional regional bases. Economic regeneration of the west coast ports in particular is highly desirable.

Q3. What should be the focus of fish stock management?

The most appalling feature over the past 30 years of the CFP  has been the immoral requirement to throw fish back into the sea if they exceeded boat catch quotas and included species not allocated to particular boats. This year-on-year process has been an economic and social tragedy for the industry; it has witnessed the wasteful destruction of valuable food stocks; and has dissipated the efforts of fishing crews often working under the most arduous of sea and weather conditions. It has had a negative effect on prices and in the case of some species such as hake, witnessed an almost total disappearance from UK fish retailers, as a result of  ‘species appropriation’ by a single country. (To wit ; Spain has gleaned the western approaches of hake stocks).The UK should construct a sustainable stocks policy that is informed by the latest and most comprehensive data on each of the main food fish groups; it should seek to conserve and protect the more common food fishes such as cod and haddock; and it should seek to expand and develop markets for edible fish species such as mullet, bream, whiting and pollack that are currently under less exploitation pressure, are under-marketed, and less well-known to the British fish-buying public. In respect of the latter point anational advertising and education campaign to encourage the British to eat both more fish, and a wider range, would be desirable.

Q4. What trade policy objectives should be pursued?

Firstly, the practice of foreign owned fishing boats ‘dumping’ large catches in British ports should be subject to review and re-licensing in ports where British boats now have a very limited presence. Secondly, the trend towards selling dockside (for cash with limited taxation returns??) high-value catches such as crabs and lobsters to foreign buyers with Europe registered refrigerated trucks (Ullapool in Scotland is a particular ‘player’ in this trade) needs honest regulation. The British consumer is being by-passed by these activities with a consequent negative effect on price and availability. It seems that a ‘first principle’ should be to regard British fish stocks as a national ‘community food resource’. The industry is at a stage now where short-term profit-taking from dockside sales should not be allowed to determine and possibly undermine an orderly national policy.  Thirdly, secure domestic markets for British fishermen need to be re-developed. Specialist fishmongers have all but disappeared from the High Street. That needs to be reversed.

Q5. How should the constituent nations of the UK be treated in respect of fishing policy.

Answer. Fragmentation of the industry across the UK has occurred in recent years. The geography of fishing needs to be ‘re-imagined’ in respect of what regional policy requires for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The drift towards a narrow economic parochialism based on a few geographically dispersed ports such as Newlyn, Peterhead and Grimsby needs to be halted. A more concerted national policy – similar in character perhaps to what used to be the case under the White Fish Authority in pre-EU days – will require the efforts of the body politic and industry representatives to come together in much more determined fashion. Such an association, of course, will no longer be fettered by EU bureaucracy.

28 November 2017