The UK’s fishing industry will face immediate difficulties and lasting damage under the new European Union agreement, industry leaders and boat owners said.
There is outrage that “marginal” gains in the share of fish that the UK fleet will be allowed to fish can be offset by the end of the “quota exchange” system, which has so far allowed agreements between British boats and their counterparts continental Europe.
Many fishermen, especially those on the south coast of England, are also furious that EU boats can work up to six miles off the British coast.
Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said on Monday that the deal the UK had reached with the EU was the “best deal possible” for the fishing industry as a whole.
Gove also said that a “major financing package” would be announced to the sector in the “very near future” to help it get the most out of Brexit.
Writing in Scotsman, Gove argued that British fishermen were currently entitled to about half the fish in the country’s waters, but by 2026 that number would increase to two-thirds.
But the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations (NFFO) said the gains were marginal. Speaking after Gove’s comments, NFFO chief executive Barrie Deas said there was a growing sense of disappointment and frustration in the industry.
He said: “There have been some marginal changes in quota quotas, but we are tied to an agreement that gives the EU fleet access to our waters up to the six-mile limit. We think an exclusive 12-mile limit was an absolute red line for the UK. It didn’t work. “
The NFFO said that, for the time being, the UK’s share in some stocks has only increased slightly – 10% to 20% for Celtic Sea haddock, for example, while North Sea pollock has risen 23% to 26%.
Andrew Locker, director of the family firm Lockers Trawlers, which operates two fishing boats in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, said 2021 would be a challenge for many who worked in the North Sea because the quota exchange system was being lost.
“I don’t know how we’re going to get past 2021,” he said. “We used to exchange quotas that we didn’t want with quotas that the French or Germans didn’t want, and that allowed us to set up an annual fishing plan.
“This year we are going to be terribly short of saithe, hake and cod that we can fish. I am angry, disappointed and betrayed. “
Elspeth Macdonald, the chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said he did not believe that the agreement fulfilled what was promised.
She said: “The principles the government has said it supports – control over access, quotas based on zonal linkage, annual negotiations – do not appear to be central to the agreement. After all the promises made to the industry, this is extremely disappointing. “
There is also concern about the export of fish from the United Kingdom to continental Europe. Tavish Scott, the chief executive of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organization, said: “Brexit means that the Scottish salmon sector now faces the reality of much more bureaucracy, bureaucracy and paperwork that are the reality of extra trade barriers.”
Irish fishing groups condemned the Brexit business as a serious setback. “The business is really bad for Ireland,” said Seán O’Donoghue, chief executive of the Killybegs Fisheries Organization, one of the largest groups in the industry.
He said the terms seemed “even worse” than they first appeared last week, when the organization issued a sharp condemnation of the agreement’s impact, especially on mackerel fishing.
Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin, met with representatives of fishing organizations on Monday afternoon. Martin acknowledged the severe impact that the outcome of the Brexit negotiations would have on the fishing industry in Ireland and said that a “comprehensive plan” would be developed to address his concerns.