Memorandum submitted by the South Western
Fish Producers' Organisation (SWFPO) (W15)
No fisherman now at work in the fisheries in
UK waters may conduct any fishing related activity without the
express or implied authority of the Minister with responsibility
for Defra.
The rules that regulate all fishing activity
have been evolved over the years since the UK became a member
of the European Union. These rules form what we know as the Common
Fisheries Policy with derogations.
The basic objective of the CFP is to bring into
line the fishing structures with the available fisheries resources.
The processes to achieve this have been ongoing since 1973.
As a result the UK fleet is already a great
deal smaller in numbers, tonnage and engine power than it was.
Thousands of fishing and related jobs have also been shed. The
statistics produced by Defra each year make grim reading.
No doubt fleets in other Member States have
also been cut, but the UK is unique in being the victim of quota-hopping
or "flags of convenience" fishing vessels. When the
fleets of Spain and Holland had to be cut the vessels were transferred
onto the UK flag, thus causing our fleet to grow artificially
as the other fleets appeared to shrink. Much of what's left of
our home fleet is actually in foreign ownership, benefiting the
fishing communities of other Member States rather than our own.
This fact is a scandal yet it is largely ignored by the Government.
The structure of the UK fleet can never be brought
into line with the resources made available to the UK until the
Register is purged of the parasitic quota-hopper fleet.
As for the resources themselves, the establishment
of the TACs and quotas was a scandal in 1982 and remains so. Dividing
the stocks amongst the Member States according to so-called historic
performance was the subject of "horse-trading" from
the start. The shares were never fair or equitable. The waters
of the UK yielded most of the fish yet the UK fishermen were granted
access to less than their due. Over the years the shares have
been further eroded by the accession of other Member States and
by the phenomenon of quota-hopping described above.
Not only this, but the actual amounts of the
TACs are established on the basis of scanty scientific information.
This has caused many fishermen to become outlaws and confidence
in the scientific community is at an all-time low. Stocks are
responding to a host of other stimuli as well as fishing mortality.
Migrations brought on by climate change and food depletion through
industrial fishing are not studied enough for their impacts to
be modelled. Fishing is blamed for all changes in biomass and
recruitment. The only way to address this is with a massive increase
in scientific research budgets and for the industry to have a
much greater involvement in programmes.
Fishermen don't know where to turn for help.
Defra is an enforcement agency with a host of rules that will
be obeyed, or else! This week a new raft of rules came into force
knocking any hope of optimism in the future for six. Now the department
can impose a penalty on a fisherman simply on the belief that
he has committed an offence. Hitherto failure to comply with regulations
has had to be established through the proper judicial process.
The presumption of innocence until proven guilty has been set
aside without parliamentary scrutiny let alone approval!
As far as this Organisation is concerned there
is virtually no future for UK fishing. On present trends the fleet
may well decline by a further 60 to 70% before Ministers take
action and stop hounding this beleaguered industry. There will
be more ports like Lowestoft and Fleetwood, shadows of what they
once were. There will be no going back from such a position because
the European Union won't allow it. Job done!
24 September 2004
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