UK fishermen are being offered the opportunity to take up funding towards attending the Future of Our Inshore Fisheries conference, to be held in London 8-9th October this year. The intention is to ensure strong representation from active fishermen at the event.
A variety of organisations and companies have responded to a call from the project’s steering group to help reduce the financial burden on active fishermen who choose to attend by covering out of pocket expenses, such as travel and accommodation.
The conference is expected to discuss issues around the management of inshore fisheries and aims to establish a blueprint for their future management.
‘The experience and ideas of active fishermen will be vital as we bring the industry together with policy-makers, regulators and the science and environmental community to discuss potential solutions to improve the management of our inshore fisheries,’ said Aoife Martin, Director of Operations at Seafish.
‘From retailers and processors to fishermen’s organisations and NGOs, we’ve had a great response to our call for support to enable fishermen to participate in the October conference, and to ensure that they will not be out of pocket for taking an active interest in the future of their industry.’
She commented that the support being made available will help around fifty fishermen to attend and ensure excellent representation from across the UK and across a variety of types of inshore fishing.
‘With these bursaries being allocated on a first-come-first-served basis we would encourage fishermen interested in attending to get in touch as soon as possible,’ she said.
The conference aims to establish the foundation for a collaborative management approach which ensures our inshore fisheries and our coastal communities are sustainable and thriving into the future. The project was established in January 2019 and is being driven by a steering group with representatives from across the UK fishing industry, government and the science community.
The two day conference is free to attend and the bursaries will be allocated on a first come first served basis to eligible fishermen.
Those interested in registering for the conference – which be held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel at Tower Bridge, London on 8-9th October 2019 – and accessing bursary funding should contact Holly Kaiser at Seafish on 0131 558 333 or at holly.kaiser@seafish.co.uk
