An National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisation delegation, representing the diversity of the NFFO’s membership, has done constructive meeting with Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon for initial discussions. In the meeting both the parties have discussed the industry’s areas of concern, built on the constructive dialogue begun when Richard Benyon was Shadow Spokesman on Fisheries.
They have discussed many issues including cod recovery and effort control, Marine Conservation Zones, the application of the maximum sustainable yield approach to next year’s TACs, devolution, CFP reform, catch quotas, whiting discards, solutions for the problems faced by under the 10-metre fleet, western mackerel and Icelandic ambitions, Irish Sea nephrops, North East Arctic cod, long term management plan for flatfish, offshore wind-farms, producer organisations and sustainable fishing plans and zero TACs for skates, rays and spurdog.
On cod recovery and whiting discards the Minister agreed that it was imperative to find “a smarter way of rebuilding stocks” than the current arrangements. The Minister has already expressed enthusiasm for the Federation’s ideas on replacing prescriptive micro-management and the top-down approach with sustainable fishing plans and this will be one of the key innovations pressed by the UK within the forthcoming CFP reform.
