Non-fish people look away. Huge amounts of conflicting info is dished out on UK/EU fish catches in “UK waters”. It’s late in the game but I decided to look again at the “real” figures, as established by Dr Ian Napier for the Uni of the Highlands and Islands. 1/13

Dr Napier has crunched the figures not for EU national quota shares (which often overlap the UK/EU zones) but for actual catches, by nationality and precise maritime location. To read the whole of this painstaking July 2020 report go here. 2/13
https://www.nafc.uhi.ac.uk/t4-media/one-web/nafc/research/statistics/eez-reports/EEZ-Report-2015-18.pdf

The report is factual and draws no political conclusions. On the surface (as it were), Dr Napier’s findings justify the complaints of UKG and parts of the UK fishing industry that Britain has an unfairly low share of catches in the UK EEZ up to 200 miles. BUT…. 3/13

Although some UK complaints are justified for some species and some sea areas, the report shows that the overall figures often bandied around in UK media (ie 70% for EU boats, 30% for UK) are misleading or grossly exaggerated. 4/13

For instance….I’ve failed to notice this before myself (slap in face with wet cod) but the stats often quoted conveniently ignore non-EU Norway’s share of catches in the UK EEZ. (The UKG has already agreed to maintain this N. access in return for UK access to N. waters.) 5/13

THUS…Taking all of the £1.7n worth of fish caught in the UK 200 miles zone in 2018….
UK boats caught 48% by value and 29% by weight.
EU boats caught 34% by value and 44% by weight.
Nor. boats caught 15% by value and 24% by weight.
6/13

If you exclude the Norwegian catches, the UK-EU shares of fish catches in the UK EEZ in 2018 were (by my calculation).
Split by value: UK 58.7% EU 42.3%.
By tonnage: UK 39.1% EU 60.9%
7/13

The weight/value discrepancy is because EU boats take big tonnages of low value fish we don’t bother with: horse mackerel, blue whiting, sprats etc.
UK boats take very high shares of high value fish such as haddock (87%), cod (79%) and shellfish (over 80%).
8/13

Hang on, you say, didn’t we read that the French get 92% of the cod and our brave boys and girls only 8%? Those figures are true only for the Eastern English Channel where (the French complain) there were never many cod and there are now very few left . 9/13

Elsewhere our boats do much better (although all cod are now in short supply).
The relative UK-EU overall shares of catches for the white fish we most prize are very high:
Haddock, UK 87%-EU 13%; Cod UK 79%- EU 11% - Norway 10%; Monkfish 71-29; hake 47-47; whiting 53-47.
10/13

In other species, admittedly, the EU does much better. Their boats take 75% of the dover sole in UK waters; our boats only 25%. EU boats take 40% of all the pelagic fish (mackerel/herring etc), UK boats 38%, Norway 14%.
11/13

One more important figure to chew on….More than a third of the UK fishing industry by value is now shellfish (38% of total, worth £317m a year). Almost all of this fish is sold to the EU – a trade which will be largely destroyed by post-Brexit paperwork, deal or no deal. 12/13

Conclusion: the UK has a fish case but not the overwhelming case presented with slanted figures. EU boats, which have fished “UK waters” for centuries, should accept a Brexit cut. But there is no moral case for destroying large parts of the Fr/Irl/Dk/NL/B fishing fleets. 13/13