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Hi, this image shows a fleet of mainly Norwegian boats who have been fishing for sand eels east of dogger for over a week. Sandeels which feed fish and seabirds and seals. With boats landing hundreds of tonnes. Should our government allow this?? Is our government aware this even goes on??
The sandeels are used for fish meal all landed in Norway with no benefit to the British economy. What about all the fish which is dumped by our fleet? Could this not be landed, and profit made?? So overall less fish needs to be caught to fill a boat?? Why is this I hear u ask, well it's the E.U.
It's comical that the E.U. control our fisheries, they via Brussels, tell our government what the total allowable catch is for our waters, under the umbrella of the common fisheries policy.
The public forget that fishermen only land what they are told to land, they hate dumping fish and they are constantly changing net design to prevent by catch, and often stop fishing certain areas because they see large amounts of juvenile fish, only to see a foreign boat towing through the same area. A foreign boat which is often a factory trawler, allowed to tow up to 8 nets, and hammer an area for many weeks. This is especially sour for our fleet as they are banned from using multi rig nets!!
And it's brittish skippers who are targeted by our fisheries officers, and they get taken to the cleaners! Charged under the proceeds of crime act given hugely exaggerated fines and their assets frozen or removed, all for a few boxes of mishandled fish. Yes they were in the wrong but when your treated like a major drug dealer, and there is a 100 foreign boats doing far worse its a difficult pill to swallow.
And then our fleet are forced to suffer the bad press and ridicule from the likes of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and green peace. It makes me sick!
I wonder if any of you can remember a politician called Edward Heath? He was the one, in 1973, who betrayed us pleasure anglers and commercial fishermen alike by giving away our fishing rights when we joined the E.U. Common market.
Reform or withdrawal of the common fisheries policy is needed, our waters need looked after by people who know our waters not by a pen pusher behind a desk in Brussels
Im 23 years old and I hear the stories of Balcary 30 lbers it's legendary, I doubt I could tell my grand kids stories like that?
Our skippers are targeted daily and rather unfairly, when they are only trying to make a pay, and are acting by the rules, weather the rules are right or wrong!
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