Commenting on the NFFO’s neutral platform, Cornish fisherman Dave Stevens has explained why he feels the British fishing industry is better off out of the European Union.
‘Right across our country many people have already made their minds up of how they will vote in the upcoming EU referendum,’ he said. ‘However, a large proportion of the population have yet to make up their minds, and it’s very easy to understand why so many are undecided. The ‘don’t know’ camp consists of many people from all walks of life who work in all areas of our economy. They have to listen to the many contradictory arguments put forward by either campaign leaving many people wondering- “where is an example of what being exclusively run by the European Union looks like?" But there is an industry that, for the past 30 years, has been entirely governed by the EU which decides its laws on exactly how it is to be managed and determines exactly what each country can do.’
But he makes the point that the waters around the UK are not British waters and British fisherman do not make up the majority of the fishermen as these are now EU waters.
‘Britain, with the largest and most productive waters, had to sacrifice the most to accommodate other European fishing fleets. The CFP is the overarching policy for all fishing activity from capture to subsequent sale, and this policy is directly responsible for the success or failure of a fishery,’ he said.
‘For all of my 26 years in fishing I have had to work under the rules set out within the CFP and I can only give you a glimpse into the world of trying to manage our family fishing business in the backdrop of the madness that is the CFP. With CFP relative stability shares applying within the EU, the UK only has access to 20% of the available fishing rights in these previously British waters, yet the French have just under 60% of the shares of the catches within these waters. In my time as a fisherman, I have seen the UK fleets shrink to match this very small share we receive of our ‘own’ fish.’
‘For many years fisherman have been blamed for the terrible, wasteful discarding but few realise that this problem was entirely caused by the lack of quota for British fishermen as well as the EU Commission’s total lack of understanding of how mixed demersal fisheries operate. As vessel owners and fishermen, we have first-hand experience of other crazy EU rules.’
‘For our industry, the arguments to leave the EU are very clear cut – not merely from a financial point of view, but because of something which is deep rooted in British citizens – the ideas of fairness, common sense and democracy,’ Dave Stevens commented.
‘I even think that if the UK were to vote to leave this would be a good thing for the EU itself, as it would have to consider and question the reasons why we chose to do this. The United Kingdom, would in fact be leading the way forward, by example of democracy, for the EU. So we must take a step into something we are still very familiar with, the sunlit uplands of common sense, fairness and democracy, and vote to leave for all these reasons greater than ourselves.’
