Shocking video of UK fishermen under attack by EU trawler in UK waters
Exclusive film – 2½ minutes of high drama on the high seas, all filmed from onboard
Montage © Facts4EU 2025 and the UK Fisheries Campaign 2025
This shows what can happen when the EU fleet think they own UK waters
Today Facts4EU brings you the premiere of a short video film which almost defies belief. We produced this for our colleagues at the UK Fisheries Campaign and this is also being shown on GB News.
STOP PRESS: Yesterday (Sunday) GB News just covered this article prominently and in full. You can read their version here and there is more about this below.
SUMMARY: A British vessel is quietly fishing one of its usual fishing grounds in UK waters 30 miles off the UK coast. An EU boat spots it on its radar from around 10 miles away, and immediately sets course at full speed towards it. There then follows a prolonged and reckless attack on the British fishermen lasting nearly an hour. “They broke all the rules of the sea and it’s no exaggeration to say they could have sunk us,” says a British fisherman on board. Crewed by men with young families, 30 miles from shore in the north-east Atlantic in UK waters, they had no immediate prospect of rescue if they had sunk.
This is the story of what happened including a short video showing the most dramatic moments of the EU boat’s attack, edited from footage taken by the British fishermen on board. This is followed by an eyewitness statement of one of the British crew.
In scenes that would not be out of place in a Hollywood action movie, you will witness the appalling and dangerous behaviour of the skipper and crew of an EU fishing vessel, licensed to fish in UK waters by the UK’s Single Issuing Authority.
In just 2½ minutes this fast-moving film tells the story of an unprovoked attack on the UK vessel fishing in UK waters, by a German-registered and Spanish-crewed member of the EU fishing fleet.
This film has been produced for the UK Fisheries Campaign by the team at Facts4EU.Org from footage supplied by the captain and crew of the UK fishing vessel from Shetland called the Alison Kay.
We pay tribute to these brave fishermen as they maintain their composure under severe provocation. It is no exaggeration to say that they came close to being sunk by this larger vessel.
These Spaniards may as well have hoisted the Jolly Roger
Firstly we present the 2½ minute film and then one of the fishermen on board picks up the story. Please watch the movie and then reach for your credit card and become a Member of the UK Fisheries Campaign. They need thousands of you to join, to give them a basic income to be able to work on outstanding stories like this.
Without you, nothing will change.
This film is strictly © Facts4EU.Org 2025 and permission MUST be requested for reproduction and licensing of it or any part of it.
Eyewitness testimony from one of the British fisherman who came under attack
“We were working in an area where we traditionally always have done, around 30 miles west of Shetland out in the Atlantic.
“I was on watch in the wheelhouse when I saw on the radar the Pesorsa Dos steaming at full speed from around 12 miles away pointing directly at us. I had heard this vessel had been very troublesome to other vessels, so I was on alert when I saw him heading to us.
© Facts4EU & The UK Fisheries Campaign 2025
“I called him on the VHF and warned him to keep his distance from us, but it made no difference. I then alerted our Skipper and the rest of the crew. By this time he was coming so close to us you could step aboard him, approx 8-10ft away on a few occasions. He was going in circles around us with a rope trailing behind him, trying to feed it into our propeller. The Pesorsa Dos master would regularly come out on deck and shout obscenities at us.
“We alerted the Coastguard to what was going on. The Pesorsa Dos was breaking all the navigational rules of the sea - vessels should keep a safe distance from one another. If he had collided with us it could easily have resulted in the sinking of our vessel, putting lives at risk.
“Marine Scotland's Fisheries Protection vessel Jura went alongside Pesorsa Dos after this, but they didn't even bother to board him.
“Pesorsa Dos then went to Irish waters soon after this, where she was boarded and arrested by the Irish Fisheries Police for serious Fisheries offences, resulting in the vessel's owner and Master being heavily fined by Irish Authorities, yet our Authorities did absolutely nothing.”
Starmer's 'Great EU Rest' summit
On Monday 19 May Sir Keir Starmer will host his 'EU Reset' summit in London, no doubt with a great deal of publicity. His avowed intent is to 'reset' the relationship with the EU and to seek various small improvements in areas of life where the EU have made things deliberately difficult.
For the EU, however, this is an opportunity to demand a whole lot of things from Sir Keir before they will discuss these other areas, such as UK defence firms being able to bid for EU defence contracts. One of these demands is an extension of the current fishing deal, which has been so deeply unpopular amongst British fishermen. This is completely wrong. The current arrangement expires in June 2026, next year, after which the normal international agreement is for an annual negotiation.
Our sources in Brussels tell us that the EU want another five-yar deal, and will not settle below three years. This would mean the EU having access to UK sovereign waters for 14 years since the British people voted to leave the EU. This is only one of the many areas where we expect Sir Keir meekly to give in to the EU, as Theresa May used to do. It is imperative that this coming week we and others make it as difficult as possible for Sir Keir and his government to surrender. We hope very much that you will feel strongly enough to contribute something towards the costs of our work and that of the UK Fisheries Campaign. Please be as generous as you can, thank you.
Please help to keep Facts4EU fighting by making a donation below
Please don't leave it to someone else - you ARE that someone else
Any credit card user
Quick One-off
From £5 - £1,000
Monthly
From £3 per month
Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first
Quick One-off
Monthly
The interview with a UKFC fisherman
Readers can watch the interview which Martin Daubney did with UKFC's Ryan Mouat below. At that time there was no video, which we think really brings the story to life and demonstrates just what our fishermen are having to put up with.
With thanks to GB News
Yesterday GB News covered this article in full
Both Facts4EU (who produced the video) and the UK Fisheries Campaign cooperated with GB News ahead of publication and you can read the GBN version by clicking on the image below.
© GB News 2025
We are as certain as we can be that in one week's time at his 'EU Reset' summit, Sir Keir Starmer plans to grant the EU continued and internationally-unprecedented access to the UK's sovereign waters when the current UK-EU fishing deal expires. We and the UK Fisheries Campaign badly need more funds to stop this from happening. Please help today if you can. Thank you.
Getting this information out there takes a lot of work but it must be done
Here's how you can help the UK Fisheries Campaign to keep doing it
From the equiv't of £1.50/mth
The UKFC is independent,
non-partisan, and not-for-profit.
They rely for funding on the British public and their fishermen.
Donate a one-off sum
Observations
Perhaps one of the most extraordinary parts of this story – aside from the life-threatening actions of the Spanish Master and his crew – is the fact they seem to think they own the UK’s seas. Here they are, many hundreds of miles from their home port, seeing a Scottish vessel fishing in UK waters and they think they have the right to try to drive it out of its own waters.
Such is the apparent ownership and control the EU feel they have over the United Kingdom and its waters.
The Alison Kay was doing what it has always done, fishing its regular grounds. It was behaving perfectly lawfully and was interfering with no-one. The Pesorsa Dos was nowhere near them. Yet when this EU vessel spotted the Scottish boat on its radar it opened up its engines and made a bearing directly for her.
It then made repeated attempts to stop the Alison Kay from fishing and to drive her away. In doing do it came extremely close – so close that our eyewitness said that at some points he could literally have stepped off his boat onto the Persorsa Dos’s deck.
It also circled the Alison Kay many times, trailing a rope that its crew had deliberately slipped over the aft end, which we have in further footage. They did this in an attempt to foul the propeller of the Scottish boat. This would have left the Alison Kay to drift, unable to steer and unable to avoid any bad weather which can appear very suddenly in the north-east Atlantic.
This British vessel was crewed by men with young families, 30 miles from shore, with no immediate rescue in sight if they had sunk.
Where were the UK authorities?
HM Coastguard technically operate only out to 12 miles from shore, from which point the Navy takes over. What seems incredible is that the only action that was taken by the UK authorities (the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate) was to send a message to the German owners in Hamburg. No boarding, inspection, investigative, or legal action was taken.
It was left to the Irish – an EU member country – to board the Pesorsa Dos when it entered Irish waters later. They fined the boat but this was on a separate matter of finding the boat had broken several fishing regulations.
When it comes to the reckless actions of the Master and crew of the Pesorsa Dos towards the Alison Kay, they got off scott-free.
Click here to donate to the UK Fisheries Campaign, and please, please help Facts4EU to carry on its additional vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating here today. Thank you.
[ Sources: Master and crew of the Alison Kay ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sun 11 / Mon 12 May 2025
Click here to go to our news headlines
Please scroll down to COMMENT on the above article.
And don't forget actually to post your message after you have previewed it!
Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.
Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.
We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.
Any credit card user
Quick One-off
From £5 - £1,000
Monthly
From £3 per month
Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first
Quick One-off
Monthly
Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments