thread

FISHERIES & HOW IT ALL WENT SO WRONG

1. Following on from yesterdays thread on the Icelandic Cod Wars, I'm going to set out where we are now & how we got here as it helps to make sense of the whole fisheries argument.

2. In 1977 the UK defined its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to 200 miles from the coastline. Other European countries did likewise under their EEC membership. The EEZ's were later formalised under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

3. At that time Spain weren't members of the EEC, so the Spanish trawlers were 'evicted' from fishing the former international waters surrounding the UK & Ireland.

4. The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was being shaped & a huge mistake was made in the method of quotas. The future quotas were to be based on what vessels could catch, rather than what was a sustainable amount to catch.

5. Naturally countries filled their boots (& anything else they could find) with fish so that the future quotas would be generous, as they were to be based on what vessels were capable of catching.

6. Spain started to take advantage of our lax maritime legislation & were re-registering Spanish fishing vessels under the British flag in order to continue fishing in our seas.

British fishermen objected.

7. The Spanish fished for Hake, Monk Fish & Megrim which were loaded onto lorries & transported back to Spain to their lucrative fish market. The big by-catches was sold in English fish markets & this drove down the price of our fish, hence our fishermen were annoyed.

8. The Govt. introduced the British Fishing Boats Act 1983, which prevented Spaniards landing fish in the UK. But the Government were happy for them to carry on fishing in UK/Irish waters because the vessels were registered as British & it all added to a big future UK CFP quota.

9. So there was an unholy alliance for a short time. The British fishermen were quietened because the ex-Spanish (now British registered) vessels took their catches straight back to Spain, so the UK market wasn't flooded with excess fish.

10. The Government were happy because the ex-Spanish vessels (now British registered fleets) were adding to the UK's future quota allocations from the EEC in the 'fill your boots' methodology in calculating future quotas based on current day catches.

11. And the Spanish were happy because it saved the faff of landing fish in the UK - they could sail straight back to Spain with their bounty instead of landing fish in the UK & transporting it by lorry to the continent.

12. But our Government's plan in using the Spanish to boost future CFP fish quotas backfired spectacularly when Spain joined the EEC & were legally entitled to a quota of their own... based on the generous catches we'd thought would add to our future quotas.

13. Resentment towards the Spanish fishermen grew.

They had a quota allocated due to EEC membership as well as a generous slice of the British quota from the re-registering of Spanish vessels under the British flag.

14. The Thatcher Government took steps. The Merchant Shipping Act 1988 attempted to prevent foreign fishing firms quota hopping (registering their fleets in Britain & taking a portion of British quota).

15. This is where the Factortame litigation I bang on about commenced. And this is where freedom of establishment rules under EU law prevented the UK protecting its fishing waters/quotas.

16. Factortame comprised just under 100 fishing vessels but was just one fishing consortium. There were many others including Dutch, Danish & other Spanish fishing firms registered under the British flag.

17. So, this thread goes some way to explaining why & how our seas have been over exploited & plundered. We're not entirely blameless in trying to up quotas, but the major error came about due the EU's CFP method of ascertaining & allocating quotas.

18. If you didn't read the prelude to this thread you can find it here: https://twitter.com/BarristersHorse/status/1338600219622191106