Wednesday 18 November 2020

A question of fish.


English fishing ports such as Fleetwood, Hull, and Grimsby, used to be wealthy towns that supported not only the fishermen themselves, but countless others who catered to the town's fish-based wealth; jewellers, hotels, builders, wine merchants, etc. These days they are almost ghost towns.

English cooler waters supply 90% of the EU's fish, but England itself was restricted to fishing just 14% of that supply. Brussels still considered this too much, so back in Brussels they came up with a cunning plan. 

To stop the English from fishing their own fish, they decided to pay UK boat owners to destroy their boats (such as the one above); they had to be totally destroyed so as never to sail again. Either burned or cut-up for scrap, leaving the waters dangerously open to EU boats.

Now, of course, as she is no longer a member of the EU, the UK wishes to fish her own waters again, and sell the catch to the EU as 'English Fish'.

M Barnier isn't pleased. He thinks that even though the UK is no longer under the thumb of Brussels, he still wants Europe's trawlers to take whatever they wish from UK waters. He has even offered 15% of the value of fish caught by EU trawlers in compensation, amounting to around £90 Million per annum.

No doubt some deal will eventually be struck, and then overlooked. There's no question that both French and Spanish trawlers will continue to take as much fish from UK waters as they wish. They will do as they've always done; make the laws, then openly flout them.

What a very different organisation it's become. The UK joined a 'Common Market' on Jan 1st 1973, and left the 'United States of Europe' on Jan 1st 2020. 

28 comments:

  1. Did I once hear that English people don't really like the fish caught in English water? It is a good export market for the UK. I don't see why the RAN can't hunt illegal fishing boats away. It happens here. The UK joining the Common Market meant they no longer wanted produce from its former colonies, including Australia, so no love lost there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The English eat either Cod (as in Fish-n-Chips), or Fish Fingers. For an island community, we are not good with other fish.

      Delete
  2. We LOVE fish and eat it all the time ..... I think its a bit of a fallacy that the English only eat cod or fish fingers. There is so much variety in the supermarkets now and, they wouldn't sell it if no one was buying it. The UK is blessed with so much variety and wonderful quality too.
    XXXX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are talking of an educated minority. Most 'average' Brits wouldn't know a Mackerel from a Sprat. Waitrose, Harrods, or Fortnums, may have a fine selection, but how many people are they catering for. The main reason why all our more 'exotic' fish go abroad, is because people appreciate them more.

      Delete
    2. we cant afford it more like.

      Delete
    3. Morrison have a far better selection of fish than Waitrose, but about 90% of our shellfish goes to Spain.

      Delete
    4. Everybody eats fish around here. We have fish vans that go selling from town to town and sell from laybys as well, and stalls and fishmongers shops, and Morrisons have huge fish counter as Tom says. Norwich has a fish market and also fish mongers shops and they are all busy with young, old and locals and new locals. Eastern Europeans love fish too.

      Delete
    5. An educated minority lol. Which is why Aldi an Lidl, the budget supermarkets, carry a wide selection of fish. Talk about stereotyping!

      Delete
    6. When did you last see a Brit buy a Spider Crab? They all go to Mainland Europe.

      Delete
    7. They look nicer than Spider Crabs. I don't think Brits like the ugly fish/crabs. Here they don't care.

      Delete
  3. I went to school in Hull. It is not a town. It is a city that gained its city status in 1897. The decline in the trawler industry certainly dealt Hull a heavy blow but it is a resilient place - never a "ghost town". For example, nowadays it is England's main centre for wind farm development and servicing. Siemens have a big manufacturing base there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is an eye-opener to do a bit of research and see who owns the fishing in the UK..five families own most of it. And that many fishing rights were sold abroad as that was more profitable than actually doing the fishing. Everything is not as the hype would have us believe. Plus the fact that it is the exporting that keeps the industry going, as eating fresh fish has gone out of fashion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't really want this to be about what fish the Brits eat (although it is as well), but about the attitude that Brussels shows towards a new independent UK. I have even bought fish fingers here (yes of course I eat them) that were processed in King's Lynn and exported.

      Delete
  5. Another thought is that overfishing is a global problem and is the most serious threat to our oceans. Fishermen’s interests are tied to the long term health of a fishery.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Another wonderful idea from Brussels was the size limit on fish, each variety has a minimum size in order to be landed. This results in about 66% of all netted fish being dumped back into the sea DEAD, as they are too small. If such fish was kept and eaten, they would only need to do one trawl in three to have their quota. It makes no sense.

      Delete
  6. When I'm in the Netherlands, at the coast, we always buy a lot of wonderful - and different - fish. Here in Berlin we have a fish market hall, which is surprisingly well sorted, fresh (and pricey).
    EU seems to me so much bureaucracy and strange (and selfish) decisions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It seems to be a serious sticking-point in the current Brexit negotiations. Brussels is suddenly discovering what they'll be missing. Fish is top of the agenda.

      Delete
  7. Our local fishermen got paid to burn their boats. Rumours were that they used the money to buy more modern boats and kept on fishing.
    The EU is out of touch with reality. Some of their laws seem to have no reason, except to entertain some penpusher in Brussels.
    And you're right about the dumping of undersized fish. Happens here all the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's crazy, throwing away good fish is a disgrace and it's depleting fish stocks; why can't they understand this. As for buying newer and better boats; I'm certain some owners did. Why wouldn't they?

      Delete
  8. I hope Britain takes back their fishing industry. Local British fishermen would benefit. O'ff the New England coast to Nova Scotia (George's Bank) commercial trawlers endangered many of our fish species. Regulations were set to limit fishing in this area. Commercial over fishing has been a big problem. Smaller fishing operations do not cause the problem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Off the East coast of England, the boats were mostly like the above. However the French and Spanish boats are more like huge factory trawlers that stay at sea for weeks. It's nowhere near a level playing field.

      Delete
  9. Gosh, this sounds like the classic scenario for an old-fashioned War! Britain and some of her near neighbours have had wars in the past over lesser issues than what will undoubtedly be viewed at some point as European fishing piracy in British waters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you remember 'The Cod Wars'? It could easily all start again.

      Delete
  10. Yes, we joined a Common Market to enhance trading. We're leaving a United Nations Of Germany/Europe. Except it isn't.
    The rules - many of which were very questionable - are not applied fairly.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...