The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy has filleted the UK’s fishing fleet

Brexit Fightback - One-pager no.9 – Fisheries - Ten Brexit groups endorsing

In the last 30 years our fleet has almost halved and we’re now a net importer of fish

Under the EU our fishing industry has been decimated. Below we present some real facts, researched from the UK Marine Management Organisation (MMO), from Eurostat, and from DEFRA.

This one-pager shows how an iconic British industry has suffered under EU management.
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This is factsheet no.9 in our Brexit Fightback Initiative.

10 Brexit organisations endorse this factsheet

Brexit Facts4EU.Org is pleased to announce that once again some great Brexit organisations have come together, to endorse the ninth factsheet in the series.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The UK is a maritime nation, surrounded by water

The official data below comes from the UK Marine Management Organisation (MMO), from Eurostat, and from DEFRA.

In the last 30 years, UK has lost an average of 172 boats per year from the fleet
In some years, as many as 20 boats per week were mothballed or scrapped
The UK's fishing fleet has almost halved in 30 years

All of this has happened under
the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy

Click chart to enlarge - © Brexit Facts4EU.Org

The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is “designed to manage a common resource,
it gives all European fishing fleets equal access to EU waters” [EU Commission]

Under the EU, a maritime island nation - the UK - has become a net importer of fish

How can a nation surrounded by sea be turned into a net importer of fish?

1990: UK exported 53% more fish than it imported
2018: UK imported 78% more fish than it exported

Since 1990 the EU has turned the UK into a net importer of fish

In 2018 the UK fleet landed under £1bn of fish
In 2017 the British public consumed £4.7bn of fish

Click chart to enlarge - © Brexit Facts4EU.Org

During any ‘Transition Period’ the EU will be free to impose even more rules on the UK’s fishermen, damaging our fishing and coastal communities even further. MPs will be able to do nothing about this.

Endorsed by a TEN Brexit organisations with big reach

We are pleased to tell readers that we have received endorsements for this factsheet from nine other Brexit organisations, each acting independently. With us that makes TEN.

These are: Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Alliance of British Entrepreneurs, Get Britain Out, Economists for Free Trade, Fishing for Leave, Global Britain, Veterans for Britain, Better Off Out (part of The Freedom Association), Campaign for an Independent Britain, and Scots for Leave. We recommend visiting their websites and following them on Twitter and Facebook, if you haven't already done so.

Further action: This factsheet follows on from the first eight factsheets in the ‘Brexit Fightback Initiative’. More factsheets are coming, as soon as we get enough donations to continue. In the meantime we hope that readers will do everything they can to promote them.

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Observations

Once again Brexit Facts4EU.Org has summarised the results of our years of research and articles into a simple one-pager for the public and for MPs. And this factsheet has been endorsed by 10 major Brexit organisations, including us.

By the very nature of a one-pager it is impossible to include all the facts we have published over the past few years. In common with the other factsheets in this series we have looked at facts which we believe are of most interest.

As ever, Remainer MPs and campaigners will say “Oh but what about xyz?” Our response is simple. First, answer the abc’s.

This is the ninth in the Brexit Fightback Initiative series and we desperately need to get the rest completed, endorsed, and promoted. Other subjects will include Defence and other fundamental areas where we have powerful arguments to make. They will contain official facts and figures, and simple charts, to illustrate the points at a glance.

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[ Sources: UK Marine Management Organisation (MMO) | Eurostat | EU Commission | DEFRA. ]
- Brexit Facts4EU.Org, 24 Oct 2019

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Reader Comments 18

1. James Bertram , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 07:06:

Only once out of the EU can we restore our fishing grounds.
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30% of our seas need to be strict 'no-take' zones (2004 Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution report).
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This is likely to increase stocks fourfold in those protected areas, and nearby; with these shifts visible in 2 to 5 years (Sarah E Lester, 2009: Biological effects within no-take Marine reserves: a global synthesis.)
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We will then be able to stop destructive fishing methods (such as the Dutch 'pulse fishing') that destroys the sea-bed and indiscriminately kill everything.
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A report by the New Economics Foundation suggests that failure to protect fish-stocks properly costs the European Union 82,000 jobs and 3 billion Euros a year.(Rupert Crilly & Aniol Esteban, 2012 'Jobs lost at sea: overfishing and the jobs that never were.')

2. Concerned , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 07:42:

I am willing everyone I meet to please tell me one real reason for being part of the EU madness. I don't know anyone and I have yet to meet anyone with such a reason.

3. Sydney Ashurst , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 07:58:

Obviously Ian Blackford of the SNP who rants and raves in Parliament about EU membership does not care about the livelihood of the Scottish fisherman and the decline in its Ports.
I have to buy my fish from Iceland rather than from Scotland.
That's short sighted politicians for you, independence under the Common Fisheries Policy and all the other Directives.
Perhaps he does not like fish.

4. Sydney Ashurst , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 08:11:

John Redwood is quite revealing today. I did not know, so how many of the pro-EU FANATICS know the Commission controls our fiscal policy.
Scotland wants independence to remain an EU Colony, England wants independence from EU Rule.

5. Sydney Ashurst , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 08:42:

Labours objections to Brexit.
On Workers Rights Corbyn is a hypocrite. "EU has become an avatar for the British labour movement,” says London University professor Costas Lapavitsas.
“They have elevated it into a great mechanism for protecting worker rights, but it is not true. None of the big advances - the Equal Pay Act, the Safety at Work Act, the Equal Value Amendment, the Sex Discrimination Act - had anything to do with the EU. They came from within, from the 'workers struggle' ”
For more read Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

6. kzb , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 09:31:

Another article which sounds good but does not even mention the real problem.
Post-Brexit, and without any "deal", British fish exports into the EU (and, importantly, Norway) will be subject to large import tariffs. So high that they will be quite uncompetitive in the EU market. (Also there may be non-tariff barriers -obviously any delay in transporting fresh fish is very undesirable.)
We British don't eat much of the fish we catch in our own waters. Most of our catch is exported, whilst we import the kinds of fish we like to eat.
So I am afraid, without a deal, our fleet may well be ABLE to catch more fish, but it won't have a market.
What do you say about that?

7. tarien , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 09:37:

Almost incomprehensible- We are a sea faring nation-surrounded by water full of fish=certainly we need to impose a strict 'no-take zone' with Royal Navy ships patrolling up and down the North Sea for a while to show the UK means business. 45 yrs under the control of the EU has us weak and too liberal, hence much the trouble we are now in.

8. Concerned , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 10:04:

Comment 7 -tarien, indeed 45 years of the establishment sleepwalking the country to disaster! They should all be locked up and the keys disposed of. No wonder they are frit to have a GE, as most of them quite rightly will be expunged from their gravy train.

9. Concerned , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 10:09:

kzb comment 6, if you talk of Brown Scottish crabs, a lot of them are exported by passenger planes to China, obviously in the hold of the aircraft!
If that EU market is blocked, as you say "Post-Brexit, and without any "deal" then just put high tarif on import of cars, wine, cheese. It is not rocket science after all.

10. Sydney Ashurst , Thursday, October 24, 2019, 11:38:

kzb, whoever you are.
I think you watched the BBC.
I grew up during WWII and we relied on fish & chips (Cod and Haddock the UK's favourite) to eke out our rations.
The fish is in our waters but we abide by the CAP quotas and its stupid regulations throwing dead fish away.
Why do we export our shellfish, not because we do not like it, simply because we get a better price on the Continent..
Have you heard of supply and demand. If the Continentals (French) cannot buy our shellfish at current prices aren't they going to complain? If they wont pay up we could go back to eating shellfish at lower prices.
We do not like Mackerel, years ago Russian ships traded their catch for our mackerel at sea.
The EU plunders our fishing grounds.
If you do not like the facts expressed here, why read them?

18 comments, page 1 of 2

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