Non- fish people look away – again. Sorry. Can’t stop myself. Just wanted to crunch the stats, and politics, of the latest twist in the Brexit fish negotiations.. Why does UK want to exclude from any deal all “pelagic” fish –45% in £ terms of what EU catches in UK waters. 1/10

First, what on earth (or in the sea) are pelagic fish? They are fish which wander to both deep and shallow waters, swimming in large shoals, often close to the surface. The other main category, demersal fish, live in relatively shallow water near to the sea-bottom. 2/10

The most important pelagic fish in UK waters are herring and mackerel. There are also blue whiting, not to be confused with whiting, and horse-mackerel, not to be confused with mackerel. Tuna, anchovies, sardines are pelagic but don’t exist in large numbers in UK waters. 3/10

Mackerel/ herring are mostly hoovered up by large, modern boats. The UK quota for mackerel is mostly owned by a handful of very rich|Scots families. The UK herring quota is largely owned by a handful of Dutch-owned boats which fly UK flags (because quotas were sold to them). 4/10

Overall, UK boats catch “only” 32% of the pelagic fish (by value) in the UK's 200 mile economic zone. This includes 41% of the mackerel and 24% of the herring. (Source: Uni of H Highlands and islands study, July 2020). EU boats take 34% and Norwegian boats 29%. 5/10

Mackerel and herring are high value fish. The EU share of the pelagic catch in UK waters is worth Euros 292m – 45% of the value of all fish caught by the EU in the UK EEZ. Most of this fish is caught by the Dutch, Danes and Irish. The French take little. 6/10

So why has UK – so late in the day – called for pelagic catches to be filleted from Brexit talks and sent for joint control of NE Atlantic countries, ie UK, EU, Nor, Iceland, Faeroe, Russia? The EU suspects that it’s an attempt to placate Fr. while screwing Irl, Dk and NL. 7/10

The UK is now offering a 35% cut in EU catches of other fish species (compared to 25% offered by EU and 60% previously demanded by London). This would be a goodish deal for Fr which mostly takes demersal fish like whiting, saithe, hake, sole. 8/10

Removing pelagic fish to talks in another body would give no certainty to Dk, NL and IRL boats which now take lots of pelagic fish in UK waters. The UK would hope to rip up existing quotas. This might provide a bonanza of extra fish to the richest parts of the UK industry. 9/10

In essence, the last gasp proposal is one of divide and rule. First, an attempt to divide the French from the other big EU fishing nations.
Second, an attempt to please wealthy UK fishing interests at the expense of smaller ones.
10/10
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