According to the NFFO, the recent clashes in the Channel between UK and French fishing vessels over scallop grounds highlight a number of important issues; primarily that whatever the rights and wrongs of disputes over fishing rights, it is never admissible to resort to intimidation and violence.
‘There have been many fishing disputes in the past and doubtless there will be many in the future. The correct place to resolve these is around the table, not on the high seas using flares, bottles stones and shackles to intimidate crews. Our vessels were forced to withdraw from the disputed area as skippers feared for the welfare of their crews,’ NFFO chief executive Barrie Deas said.
‘Every day of the week many French fishing vessels fish within UK waters, sometimes as close as six miles from the coast, much to the annoyance of British fishermen. On many occasions, UK fishermen have been tied up, quotas exhausted, as French vessels with their much more generous allocations have continued to fish in sight of land. The French share of Channel cod is 84%. The UK share is 9%. This has been intensely frustrating but at no time have British fishermen resorted to intimidating or violent tactics. Only last week, French trawlers (not for the first time) towed away crab pots set Cornish fishermen only eight miles from the UK coast. This provocation was met with fury and protests, but also restraint.’
He said that the UK’s departure from the EU and the CFP will be a game changer, commenting that as French fishermen engaged in the Baie de Seine dispute claim, after Brexit UK vessels will have no longer have an automatic right of access to fish in this area located within the French Exclusive Economic Zone.
‘Their French colleagues along the coast will not miss the much bigger implication. As the UK will (automatically) become an independent coastal state when the UK leaves the EU, French vessels will no longer have an automatic right to fish in the UK EEZ. As the European fleets currently catch around six times as much in UK waters as UK vessels catch in EU waters, they rightly understand that the writing is on the wall for the grossly asymmetrical arrangements that have existed under the Common Fisheries Policy,’ he said.
‘Under UN law of the sea, the coastal state has responsibility for managing the resources within its EEZ and to determine who will be allowed to fish in its waters and under what conditions. The EU will, of course, have the same rights to exclude or apply conditions to UK vessels fishing in French waters. But their pool of resources is much smaller and our effort in their waters, by comparison, is tiny.’
He commented that the scallop debacle last week has proved to be an embarrassment the government in Paris, and France in particular is intent on keeping something as close as possible to the status quo on access to fish in UK waters and quota shares.
‘Their cause is not helped by a bring-it-on attitude within parts of the French industry,’ Barrie Deas said, adding that there is a legal obligation on all countries which share transboundary fish stocks, to co-operate in their management and sustainable exploitation.
‘The most likely future model for management of shared stocks is annual bilateral agreements – as currently happens between EU and Norway. Safe harvesting rates are agreed on the basis of scientific advice and levels of access to fish in each other’s waters, along with quota shares are agreed during autumn negotiations each year,’ he said.
‘The French authorities have primary responsibility for ensuring that there is no recurrence of the anarchic and troubling scenes witnessed last week. If such events were to take place in UK waters, doubtless a police investigation would be underway and there is no dearth of evidence, supplied on video by the perpetrators themselves.’
‘Scallops are a valuable resource and it is vital that they are fished only at sustainable levels. There is no fundamental reason why in a spirit of reconciliation and compromise, a deal acceptable to both sides cannot be reached.’
