EXCLUSIVE: Our most shocking, most-watched video and story of 2025
UK fishermen under attack by EU trawler: 2½ minutes of drama on the high seas
Montage © Facts4EU 2025
This shows what can happen when the EU fleet think they own UK waters
Today Facts4EU brings you a short video film which almost defies belief. It was our most viewed film of 2025 and we thought readers who missed it would want to see it. Even readers who saw it when we premiered it may well want to watch it again. For the first time, we published this on our YouTube channel on Christmas Day and it was watched by over 15,000 people in just two days - with no promotion!
Now we are telling the full story of what happened, and publishing the testimony of a British fisherman who was on the boat and witnessed the whole incident. A lot of work went into this and we are hoping that once you have watched it, you might dig out your credit card and make a secure donation to the Facts4EU team that made the film. We really hope this will not be the last film we ever make.
We originally produced this for our colleagues at the UK Fisheries Campaign, who are now sadly 'on hold', due to lack of public financial support. They were struggling more than us so we did everything for them on this story, including all interviews, dealing with a lot of footage, making the film, and getting it out there as best we could with our own limited resources. We also got it shown on GB News.
A few days after making this film, it became highly relevant when Sir Keir gave away our waters for another 12 years
It's hard to believe, looking back, but we made this film only a week before the great 'EU Re-Set Summit', which Sir Keir Starmer came away from, having given away British sovereign waters for a further 12 years. He had asked for - and received - absolutely nothing back from his 'European partners' for this extraordinary generosity he showed with the livelihoods of fishermen all around the coast of the UK.
Now British fishermen are facing another 12 years of the EU fishing fleet in their own waters. They can only hope that not all of them act in the same way as the Captain and his crew onboard the Spanish-manned but German-owned trawler that you will see in the film below.
Sir Keir at his 'Summit'
Regular readers know we are proud of our ability to predict what will happen. Here is what we wrote at the time: "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 are only sorry we were proved right.
The plot: "UK fishermen under attack by EU trawler"
A true story
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,” a British fisherman on board told us. 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 by Facts4EU 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 Spanish 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.
We pay tribute to these brave fishermen on the UK fishing vessel from Shetland called the Alison Kay, 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 Brexit Facts4EU. We need thousands of you to join, to give us a basic income to be able to work on outstanding stories like this.
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The film
This film is strictly © Facts4EU.Org 2025
Permission MUST be requested for reproduction and licensing of it or any part of it.
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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 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.”
The above testimony is as told to Facts4EU's Chairman, verbatim, by one of the fishermen on board The Alison Kay.
Observations
"Sir Keir, how do you think these sort of 'EU relations' are going to be helped by your 'Great Re-Set?"
At Sir Keir Starmer's infamous 'Great Re-Set Summit', EU fishermen like those on the Pesorsa Dos will have seen the British Prime Minister meekly acquiesce to what he was asked for - EU access to British waters for the next 12 years. This kind of arrangement is completely unprecedented in international negotiations about a country's seas. The events above took place before the Summit. We suggest these Spanish fishermen will have only felt emboldened after hearing the news.
Let's not forget, the Master of the Alison Kay reported these EU fishermen to the UK authorities who took precisely no action. No fines, nothing. 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 eyewitnesses said that at some points they could literally have stepped off their boat onto the Pesorsa 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.
Please, please help Facts4EU to carry on its 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, 30 Dec 2025
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