The British fishing industry will suffer immediate hardship and long-term damage under the new European Union agreement, industry leaders and boat owners have claimed.
There is anger that “marginal” gains on the share of fish that the British navy may catch may outweigh the system of “quota swaps” that have so far enabled transactions between British boats and their European continent counterparts.
Many fishermen, especially those on the south coast of England, are also furious that EU boats will be able to operate up to just six kilometers off the British coast.
Cabinet Minister Michael Gove on Monday said the agreement the UK had concluded with the EU was the ‘best possible deal’ for the fishing industry as a whole.
Gove also said that a “major financing package” would be announced in the “very near future” for the sector to take full advantage of Brexit.
Gove wrote in the Scotsman, arguing that British fishermen are currently entitled to half of the fish in the country’s waters, but by 2026 it will rise to two thirds.
But the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations (NFFO) claims that profits were marginal. NFFO chief executive Barrie Deas said after Gove’s remarks that there was a growing sense of disappointment and frustration in the industry.
He said: ‘There have been some marginal changes to the quota shares, but we are related to an arrangement that gives access to the EU fleet to our waters up to the six-mile limit. We thought an exclusive 12 mile limit was an absolute red line for the UK. It did not last. ”
The NFFO said the UK’s share is only slightly increasing for the time being – 10% to 20% for Celtic haddock, for example, while the North Sea seal (coley) is rising from 23% to 26%.
Andrew Locker, director of the family business Lockers Trawlers, which operates two fishing boats from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, said 2021 will be challenging for many people working on the North Sea as the quota exchange system is lost.
“I do not know how we are going to go through 2021,” he said. “We exchanged the quotas we did not want with the quotas that the French or Germans did not want, and this enabled us to draw up an annual fishing plan.
‘This year we are unfortunately going to lack the amount of saithe, hake and cod we can catch. I am angry, disappointed and betrayed. ”
Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said she did not believe the agreement would deliver on its promise.
She said: ‘The principles supported by the government – access control, quota shares based on zonal seizure, annual negotiations – do not appear to be central to the agreement. After all the promises given to the industry, it is terribly disappointing. ”
There are also concerns about UK fish exports to mainland Europe. Tavish Scott, chief executive of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organization, said: “Brexit means the Scottish salmon sector is now facing the reality of much more red tape, bureaucracy and paperwork which is the reality of the extra trade barriers.”
Irish fishing groups have condemned the Brexit deal as a serious setback. “The agreement is a very bad fisheries agreement for Ireland,” said Seán O’Donoghue, chief executive of Killybegs Fishermen’s Organization, one of the largest groups in the industry.
He claimed the terms seemed “even worse” than they first appeared last week when the organization issued a scathing condemnation of the impact of the deal, particularly on mackerel fishing.
The Irish Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, met with representatives of fishing organizations on Monday afternoon. Martin acknowledged the serious impact the outcome of the Brexit negotiations would have on the fishing industry in Ireland, and said a “comprehensive plan” would be developed to address their concerns.