The Fishing Industry Financially the fishing industry is seen as of little importance to the UK economy, creating approximately £650m of revenue per year in total with a further approximate £50m worth of large marketable fish dumped back into the sea dead each year due to government policy. Although the fishing industry is not considered by our government to be very important to the UK, it does create a lot of jobs around our coastline and for every fisherman at sea (approximately 11,500) a further ten jobs are created ashore, many of these are in small communities that are completely dependent on fishing as virtually their only source of income and employment. FINANCES ASIDE The most important industries in any country must always be those that can supply its population with an independent source of food, particularly when it is the healthiest food available to them. In this case the fishing industry is the third most important in the country, behind only the water and agriculture industries, not even a government minister or the money markets would survive very long without food. Fishermen are recognised as being the best seafarers in the world particularly in coastal waters and they do a very dedicated, difficult and dangerous job. Very few people could endure the demands of the fishing industry and these skills are being eroded rapidly due to government policy, consequently very few young people are joining the industry. An in-shore fisherman spends on average 2000 hours at sea every year. During this time a huge wealth of knowledge is gained of their local tidal and weather patterns, fish migrating, habits, seabeds and what creatures live there at different times of year, because without this in-depth knowledge no fisherman could earn a living. These skills are recognised by the lifeboat institution as most of their coxswains and crew on the larger lifeboats many of whom work on a voluntary basis, are fishermen. NUTFA believes these skills should be embraced and encouraged, to secure the industry’s well being and future, particularly in these such uncertain times of global warming and terrorism.