With the election over and the party of government for the last fourteen turbulent years now heading for opposition, a new Labour government takes over to face a host of headaches.
NFFO chief executive Mike Cohen had already made a series of key points ahead of the election – when the polls were clear that the UK was already heading for change.
‘Above all else, policy makers need to remember that fishing is about food. It is not a conservation problem. It is not a heritage activity, or a hobby. It is a modern industry that produces food,’ he said.
‘People are finally waking up to the fragility of a food supply system that is over-reliant on time-sensitive imports and the rapid, affordable international transport links that make them possible. The British fishing industry provides healthy, affordable, free-range food, with a carbon footprint that compares favourably to any other source of dietary protein.’
He commented that one of the few tangible benefits of Brexit was the advent of a new fisheries management system for the UK – and this election has taken place in the middle of the period in which the UK’s Fisheries Management Plans were being developed.
‘As a result, consultations have been put on hold and meetings have been postponed. The FMP rollout has paused and we all wait to see if, when, and in what form they may resume,’ he said.
‘A new government may feel the need to separate itself from its predecessor in the policy directions that it pursues, but on this point, caution would be sensible. The FMP approach must not be seen as the product of a particular government. It involves collaboration between industry, fisheries managers and scientists, in order to develop evidence-based management measures. Many of us have been calling for exactly this for years. This fundamental principle is a good one and the system built upon it should not be discarded wholesale just because a particular party happened to be in office when it was finally implemented.’
Mike Cohen commented that fishing is managed in a multiplicity of different ways by a wide range of different people, for a host of – often mutually contradictory – reasons.
‘Fishing effort is managed internationally by treaty and annual negotiation; it is managed nationally by Defra; and locally by IFCAs. There is stock-based management through FMPs, and spatial management through regional Marine Plans. Fishing grounds are taken for other uses under the national energy strategy, and also by the national conservation strategy, while the Crown Estate leases areas out to any industry but ours for profit,’ he said.
‘Fishing is continually disadvantaged by the lack of a holistic plan to guide its development as an industry. We need a national strategy that will tie together the management of existing fisheries and the sustainable development of new ones. A strategy that will open up fishing’s scope to create jobs and support communities in coastal areas. If Britain does this, then we will finally embrace fully the potential for fishing to contribute to the nation’s food security and economic growth.’
