Saving Seafood

English fishing, aquaculture businesses receive GBP 10 million coronavirus support

April 20, 2020 — More than 1,000 fishing and aquaculture businesses in England are being offered the opportunity to receive direct cash grants through a new multi-million-pound fisheries support scheme launched by the U.K. government.

Announced by Environment Secretary George Eustice and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay, the fund is the latest step to protect businesses affected by COVID-19, with up to GBP 9 million (USD 11.2 million, EUR 10.3 million) made available for eligible fishing and aquaculture businesses.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

UK government announces £10m coronavirus fund for English fishing sector

April 17, 2020 — The UK government on Friday announced a £10m ($12.4m) fund to shield England’s fishing and aquaculture sectors from the impacts of coronavirus.

More than 1,000 fishing and aquaculture businesses in England will receive £9m in direct cash grants through a new fisheries support scheme, the government said, noting that the supports were designed to assist the sector with its “immediate needs” during the crisis.

The government also said that a further £1m would be made available to support projects to assist fishermen to sell their catch in their local communities during the pandemic.

The move, it said, would enable them to find new markets and support communities that depend on the fisheries industry.

Read the full story at Yahoo News

UK supermarkets given permission to join forces, merge supply chains

March 23, 2020 — U.K. supermarket chains can for the first time work together and will be allowed to share distribution networks, stock level data, staff, and other important resources after the government temporarily relaxed elements of competition law to enable food to reach stores during the coronavirus crisis.

Drivers’ hours have also been relaxed to enable retailers to get more food to outlets, while plastic bag charges for online purchases have been stopped to speed up deliveries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Without a Brexit fisheries deal, herring and other North Sea species face dire future

March 20, 2020 — Taking back control of fisheries became one of the totemic issues uniting supporters of the campaign for the UK to leave the EU. The issue will again be high on the agenda when the negotiations over the future relationship between the UK and EU are able to take place.

This will turn on the principles of freedom of access to , and the rules governing how the EU’s total allowable catch is divided between member states. Both are enshrined in the EU Common Fisheries Policy, and the fishing quotas have been fixed since 1983. Referred to as “relative stability,” these permit a disproportionate amount of fishing in UK waters. Vessels from other EU member states are estimated to catch eight times as much fish from UK waters as the other way around.

The UK government has indicated that getting a better deal for British fishers will be a red line in the negotiations. In particular, it proposes that access to UK waters should be licensed and  shares should be negotiated annually based on “zonal attachments,” which are the proportions of international fish stocks that reside the 200-mile area off the coast of a country, known as the exclusive economic zone.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Fishing Presents a Vexing Snag in Brexit Talks

March 16, 2020 — In the pitch black of early morning, huge waves hurled the 30-ton vessel from side to side, drenching crewmen who struggled to keep their footing as they cast the trawler’s nets into the swirling seas.

But, once back on the bridge, the skipper, Dave Driver was oblivious to the stomach-churning motion of the boat, and dismissive of the perils of his work — even as he recalled once falling overboard and, on another occasion, rescuing two fishermen from drowning.

“I’m my own boss, I do what I want, I think it’s the best job in the world,” said Mr. Driver, who left school at age 15, but now owns the 1.2 million pound trawler Girl Debra, named after his wife.

He has only one major gripe in life: the French.

Mr. Driver thinks French boats are allowed to take too many fish too close to the British coast — touching on a deeply emotional issue on both sides of the channel that could dash hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and the European Union.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Scottish salmon faces “huge, unnecessary burdens” through Brexit deal, warns industry body

February 12, 2020 — The Brexit deal being pursued by the United Kingdom’s government could significantly undermine the Scottish salmon sector by requiring exporters to secure health certificates to send products to E.U. markets, the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) has warned.

At present, because of the free movement of goods within the E.U., Scottish salmon shipments do not require export health certificates (EHCs). However, the SSPO fears this ability will change, saying that it now appears inevitable that these exports will need EHCs after the end of this year, when the transition phase is over.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Aquaculture UK acquired by Diversified Communications

February 11, 2020 — Diversified Communications has acquired Aquaculture UK, a trade show focused on the aquaculture sector in the United Kingdom.

The biennial expo is slated to take place 19 to 21 May, 2020, at the Macdonald Aviemore Highland Resort in Scotland. In a press release announcing the acquisition, Diversified said it expects more than 3,000 attendees and 200 exhibitors at the next edition of the expo.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

France to Britain: No fish for finance deal

February 7, 2020 — The European Union must not give the UK concessions on access to EU financial markets in exchange for rights to fish in British waters, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.

French fishermen temporarily lost access to waters off Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands situated near the French coast of Normandy, when a European fisheries treaty expired automatically on Jan. 31 with Britain’s exit from the EU.

While the fishermen are due to regain access to the area off Guernsey, future fishing rights in UK waters more generally are likely to be a flashpoint in the negotiations between Brussels and London on a post-Brexit relationship.

Read the full story at Reuters

Sustainability prioritized as UK government rolls out post-Brexit fisheries bill

January 29, 2020 — With the United Kingdom due to withdraw from the European Union on Friday, 31 January, new legislation has been introduced into U.K. parliament that creates the powers for the country to operate as an independent coastal state and to manage its fish stocks independently.

Beyond delivering a legal guarantee that the United Kingdom will leave the E.U.’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) at the end of the transition period in December 2020, and also ending the automatic rights for E.U. vessels to fish in British waters, the new fisheries bill contains provisions that take into account climate change’s impact on fisheries, as well as the new objective to move towards “climate-smart fishing” in U.K. waters.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

EU warns refusal to give access to UK fishing waters after Brexit could lead to new cod war

January 9, 2020 — Failure to grant the European Union access to British fishing waters after Brexit could lead to an outbreak of cod war style hostilities, the EU has warned.

Brussels is demanding continued access to British waters as a condition of the trade deal but Boris Johnson has warned the European Commission that Britain will take back control of its waters once Britain leaves the EU.

“We want to avoid any fisheries skirmishes in the Atlantic. We have seen them before we don’t want to see them again,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at a press conference with Charles Michel, the European Council president in Zagreb

Read the full story at The Telegraph