MPs have warned that the commercial fishing quotas are now largely taken over by the traders. A select committee report today criticises the Government over its management of the controversial EU allocation system that has restricted British fleets since the 1980s. It is particularly concerned that a market allowing small fishing fleet to buy and sell “quota” has been infiltrated by traders with “no connection” to the fishing industry.
The question over allocation creating problem as the fishermen reach limits long before allocations expire. The cross-party Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) select committee is alarmed that ministers have no record of who holds the allocations. Anne McIntosh, chairman of the committee, said that quota was described to them as the ‘lifeblood’ of the fishing industry. She said that Defra does not currently monitor who holds quota in England.
She added that this means that they don’t know how much fishing quota may be held by ‘slipper skippers’ or organisations who have little or no connection to the fishing industry and who merely trade it as a commodity. Without reform, young fishermen will be discouraged from joining the industry and existing fleets will struggle to make ends meet, it argues.
She further said that the fishing communities are very concerned by the apparent turning of quota into a commodity at the expense of working fishermen, and we have called upon Defra to justify its position. The report that recommends allocations should only be held by working fishermen unless outside interests can be shown to be of clear benefit to fishing communities.
Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, said that the risk of fishing quotas being held by stockbrokers or Tesco or Birdseye is that fishermen are effectively dependent on conglomerates. He said the Duchy Quota Company’s “great attraction” was that it brought men and women into the industry as “quotas are held by the community rather than private investors.
