UK Fish Stocks Management Over the last twenty years the UK fishing industry has reduced in size and fishing capability by approximately 50%. Because of this most of our fish stocks have increased dramatically and are now in a healthy condition and in particular the Cod stocks, as there are extremely encouraging signs all around our coastline. The fleet is now so small there is very little chance of these stocks ever being over fished again. Our government chooses to be a part of the very controversial CFP (common fisheries policy) and forces it upon every professional person associated with the fishing industry, against his or her will. To date the CFP has achieved very little towards the conservation of our fish stocks and in many cases it has had the opposite effect and caused the unnecessary destruction of many tons of immature and mature fish. This is directly due to Defra and the European commission not accepting or choosing to ignore the practical advice given by the professional fishing industry and solely relying on scientific advice, which at best is extremely inaccurate. THE QUOTA SYSTEM The CFP use the quota system as their cornerstone for the conservation of most European species, as this is a very convenient way of counting amounts of fish landed. The quota system was originally designed and introduced by fishermen who fished for and wanted to protect mid-water (pelargic) species, such as herring, mackerel and sprats. These are all single species fisheries, quite simply if you fish for mackerel, you catch mackerel and very little else, so the quota system is a very effective and workable conservation measure for these fisheries. When the CFP evolved it recognised the quota system as an established working conservation measure, but then applied it to white fish (demecial) fisheries, against all professional advice from the fishing industry, as quotas are the worst possible conservation measure for any of these fisheries. White fish species are all those that live on the seabed, these are all mixed fisheries and there are many different white fish species, so although a fishing vessel may be targeting one particular species, it cannot avoid catching several others at the same time. Very little can be done by the fishing industry to prevent this, so when a quota is reduced to a low limit or even a ban imposed on a particular species, widespread dumping takes place. This accounts for thousands of tons of large marketable fish by the UK fleet alone every year and does nothing for conservation. It also causes widespread pollution of our seabeds and dramatically increases the health and safety risk of our fishermen and carbon footprint the fishing fleet makes, as the fishing vessels have to stay at sea much longer in order to earn a basic living on the species they are allowed to land. If a fishermen does try to land and sell or even give this fish to a charity, rather than dump it back in the sea dead and they are caught doing so, this is what Defra call over-fishing and the fishermen are prosecuted, heavily fined and treated like common criminals. As an example Last year a Skate ban was imposed in the southern north sea even though the skate stocks have always been very healthy in that area, this ban forced the local fleet against its will to dump hundreds of boxes and tens of thousands of pounds worth of large marketable Skate back into the sea dead, as there was so many it proved impossible not to catch them, this was particularly painful for the local boats as it was one of the best skate seasons on record. When asked why this unjustified ban had been imposed DEFRA replied it was to protect the common skate in Scottish waters. In area ICES 7E off Cornwall the under 10 m vessels allocation of Monkfish for 2007 was 337 tons. The fishery in this area is at its heaviest in July, August and September after which time it declines steadily until the end of the year. Following good fishing and landings in August the MFA ( Marine Fisheries Agency ) decided to cut the monthly allocation of quota for this species considerably. The MFA decided to ignore the advice of the industry that this was unnecessary and despite repeated requests for an increase in the monthly quota no changes were made until December by which time the fish had moved away. The result was that the 56 tons of unused Monkfish quota, worth approximately £160.000 was caught but had to be dumped, as the vessels were not allowed to land it. This confirms the belief of NUTFA that the Under 10m fishermen must have more control over how their quota is managed. These are just some of the typical examples of gross managerial incompetence the fishing industry has to endure on a regular basis. So in summary, a scientific study is conducted on a particular species in an area and because it has no practical input, its findings are inaccurate. The scientists advise the European commission that a fish stock is very low; the European commission reduce the quotas on that species to ridiculously low level or even impose a complete ban. However in reality the fishing vessels are catching high quantities of that species because the stocks are so healthy they cannot avoid catching them and have to dump them back into the sea dead or face prosecution, all because the scientific advise had no practical input and was completely wrong in the first place. The English fisheries Minister Jonathan Shaw and the EU fisheries Minister Joe Borg have both stated that dumping fish is immoral, yet it is only their fisheries policies that cause the dumping of any fish. All of this gross mis-management costs the UK taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds per year. NUTFA would like to see the quota system abolished on all white fish species and replaced with effective conservation measures, of which there are many. Obviously if there is proven evidence that a particular fish stock is low and needs help, then we must strive to protect that stock to the best of our ability, as this could only ever affect fishermen’s livelihoods and no one else’s. There is much rhetoric and opinions about the condition of our fish stocks by many individuals and fanatical organisations, which are not educated in this field. We hear about trawlers hoovering the seas clean and such like, but the fact remains that if every single fishing vessel in the world were put in the North Sea and told to stay there until they have wiped out every fish they could, all of these fishing vessels would be bankrupt long before there was a chance of any species becoming endangered and within ten years all of those fish stocks would be back to a healthy level. However there would never be a fishing industry again, as all of the necessary skills would be lost forever. Each year the EU fisheries commission allocates the UK its share of quota for each species, this is called a TAC (Total allowable catch) and DEFRA is supposed to share this quota out fairly amongst the different sectors of the UK fishing industry, DEFRA refuses to do this, and has allowed a very small percentage of vessels and individuals (some of whom have no connection with the fishing industry in any way) gain supposed legal entitlement to a very high percentage of the quota even though the quota is a national asset i.e.15% of the UK fleet gets 96% of all quota and 85% of the fleet gets just 4%. This is in direct breach of the parliamentary Ombudsman’s rules, which clearly states that a government department must put things right when they know they have gone wrong, it is also in direct breach of UN and EU right to work and Human rights laws. NUTFA is now forwarding a complaint to the Ombudsman against DEFRA regarding this issue and is also seeking a judicial review of the entire unfair system though the courts as 85% of the UK fishing fleet have been forced into this position though no fault of their own. The following graph shows the amount of quota allocated to the different sectors of the fishing industry and how it should read if it was allocated correctly by DEFRA Calculations are bases on the kilowatt (power) capacity of the fishing fleet. As clearly demonstrated, the under 10m and Non-sector Vessels are starved of quota and have to dump high quantities of large marketable fish or risk prosecution, where as the Sector vessels have far more quota than they could ever catch, and try to lease the quota back to the under 10s and non-sector fishermen whenever possible, for an extortionate and unaffordable rent and make a huge profit. The longer DEFRA refuses to stand up to its responsibilities and address this issue, the more compensation will have to be paid to the fishing industry by Government once they have lost the forthcoming litigation against them.