PATRIOTIC POST - STAFF - 2023
As a result of Brexit negotiations, the fishing minister announced the UK would be able to catch about 30,000 tonnes more fish.
According to reports, the government announced a new quota deal with the EU. This deal will allow UK trawlers to catch up to £750 million worth of fish in 2023.
Since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, fishing rights in British waters have been at the center of post-Brexit negotiations and the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, which is used to manage fishing fleets and fish stocks.
The EU and the UK have had trouble talking about fisheries, fair competition, and how to settle disagreements. At one point, the UK government sent two Royal Navy ships to Jersey because French fishing boats were gathering near the island to protest fishing rights after the UK left the EU. The UK is an independent coastal state, so it is up to the UK government to run its territorial waters.
The government has announced that UK fishermen will be able to catch 140,000 tons of fish worth more than £280 million, which is £34 million more than last year.
Reports show Mark Spencer, Minister of State for Farming, Fisheries, and Food told the Commons that the UK’s fishing opportunities are negotiated in three main forums. First, between the UK and the EU. They came to an agreement on total allowable catches for 2023, as well as arrangements for stocks without quotas.
Spencer stated they had taken back control of their water as an independent coastal state. They are free to negotiate on their terms and push for deals that will help the UK fishing industry, the marine environment, and all parts of the UK.
Mike Cohen is the deputy chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO). He explained that the fishing industry is becoming more worried about spatial squeezes. It includes the loss of fishing grounds due to things like wind farms and protected marine areas that also need space.
Cohen explained that fishing is getting squeezed out because people think fishing will go somewhere else. Scarborough town hall has records going back 800 years about people who fished for a living and sold fish at the market. If there was something else to catch, we’d already be catching it.
Stop fixing what isn’t broken.