Fishing

Too late, that’s our fishermen/women, farmers, steel workers, pensioners, our young folk, pretty much all of us except the wealthy that he has Mullered one way or another, all for the sake of the mythical £22 billion hole that has already been proved not to have existed

MayBee70

Am I right in thinking that few people have mentioned or even cared about what’s been happening to our fishing industry since Brexit. Until, that is, it’s included in a new trade deal with the EU. Can someone remind me how much of our GDP is tied up in fishing. Now, all of a sudden, everyone’s talking about fishing again.

Good point MayBee.

The UK fishing industry contributes to the UK economy an amount equivalent to that of the tatoo industry!

But, because fishing is mentioned in the same breath as Brexit, suddenly it’s the ‘life blood’ of the country🤷‍♀️

I’ve skimmed through the recently produced news relating to the whole meeting and I think it’s very positive.

It’s certainly better than the mess the Tories left us with, re Brexit.

I don’t think, for some out there (& maybe on here too) Starmer can do a solitary thing right!

mabon1

Has done for the next 12 years.

Certainty, less bureaucracy and a bigger market.

Has done for the next 12 years.

nanna8

Wouldn’t want to be a fisherman. Sacrificial lambs.

Can you tell me ( as you’re an expert on British politics) how Brexit helped the fishermen? And the effect that this new deal will have on them?

nanna8

Wouldn’t want to be a fisherman. Sacrificial lambs.

Wrong. Where are you getting your information?

Wouldn’t want to be a fisherman. Sacrificial lambs.

Well, I just sincerely hope that both GN's and the press review the whole situation on trade and security when it's clear, including the advantages gained by trade standards agreements which affect agriculture and fishing products.

What’s proposed sounds a decent two-way deal to me. I think Starmer is doing well here.

Am I right in thinking that few people have mentioned or even cared about what’s been happening to our fishing industry since Brexit. Until, that is, it’s included in a new trade deal with the EU. Can someone remind me how much of our GDP is tied up in fishing. Now, all of a sudden, everyone’s talking about fishing again.

EU fisherman also trawl those waters. It's about where you can catch what. The popular fish and chip fish cannot be caught in UK waters by anyone as the stocks are so low.

What it means is a change from small fishing boats for these fish to larger companies with larger boats and refrigeration facilities.

The depletion of stocks of fish the UK like by smaller local boats has been happening for years until it was recognised they were likely to disappear altogether, and its not EU rules that has stopped this sort of fishing, its over fishing for years.

Wyllow3

25Avalon

If the Eu can fish in our waters themselves why would they buy from our fishermen?

Because the fish we do catch is mostly sold to the EU. and it has just become easier because we can now process our fish catch in the UK into products we can sell abroad which we weren't able to do under previous agreements

"Yes, a significant portion of UK-caught fish is exported to the EU. In 2023, the EU was the largest market for UK seafood exports, accounting for 71% of the total value of fish exports. Specifically, France, Spain, and the Republic of Ireland are key destinations for UK seafood"

Uk citizens fish preferences are not mainly for the seafood we do catch.

However, the fish we do like, like Cod, and Haddock are caught by UK ships in non UK waters as stocks are so low

*UK fishermen target cod in both UK waters and in distant waters, like those around Norway, Iceland, and Greenland, where cod stocks are more plentiful*

Presumably Iceland, Norway and Green land are happy to let us trawl their waters.

Jaxjacky

Don't let facts get in the way of a an emotive stirring.
From what I’ve read thus far it’s a decent deal and smart negotiation on both sides.

If people read the full story - Scottish Salmon delighted, we can now process our fish and sell more abroad, and the whole package of trade deals is not even out yet with the benefits for the UK,

The jumping on the bandwagon - with inadequate facts - before the conference has even finished is political grandstanding of the worst kind - misinformation and selective.

25Avalon

If the Eu can fish in our waters themselves why would they buy from our fishermen?

Because the fish we do catch is mostly sold to the EU. and it has just become easier because we can now process our fish catch in the UK into products we can sell abroad which we weren't able to do under previous agreements

"Yes, a significant portion of UK-caught fish is exported to the EU. In 2023, the EU was the largest market for UK seafood exports, accounting for 71% of the total value of fish exports. Specifically, France, Spain, and the Republic of Ireland are key destinations for UK seafood"

Uk citizens fish preferences are not mainly for the seafood we do catch.

However, the fish we do like, like Cod, and Haddock are caught by UK ships in non UK waters as stocks are so low

UK fishermen target cod in both UK waters and in distant waters, like those around Norway, Iceland, and Greenland, where cod stocks are more plentiful

Don't let facts get in the way of a an emotive stirring.
From what I’ve read thus far it’s a decent deal and smart negotiation on both sides.

Oreo

He’s doing his best to make sure Farage ends up in number 10.
Maybe he doesn’t like being PM after all.

Well if Farage as PM works as hard for the fishing industry as he did on the EU fisheries committee then it won't get them very far. In three years he attended one of 42 meetings.

I am not going to type more until we know more.

I am angry. Takes a lot to make me angry.

I also actually think Starmer does not want the Uk to be able to feed itself.

fancythat

My word for him is traitor.

Why?

Surely we need to look at the new EU/UK trade and security agreements as whole as to how they will grow our trade with the EU benefitting us all?

We aren't even waiting for the full results!

For example, this has just come up as news benefitting our fish industries

Scotland's salmon exporters hail 'breakthrough' deal with EU

""We congratulate the UK government on securing this deal with the EU which will slash red tape and the time taken to get premium salmon to market," says Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland.
"This breakthrough will ease the burden on our farmers, processors and the communities they support," he adds.

Scottish salmon is the UK’s largest food export

If the Eu can fish in our waters themselves why would they buy from our fishermen?

WWM says

"The red tape that the fishing industry has been facing since Brexit has been hugely damaging. Not only does it involve a lot of paperwork but also a vet to approve the catch. What took at the most 16 hours pre-Brexit now takes anything up to 28 hours to reach its European destination. This cannot be so attractive to the buyers"

This means that Britain can now process fish and export it in the UK which is previously was not able to do, because under terms negotiated by BJ, communities ended up setting up complex and costly veterinary certification to comply with Brexit export health and safety rules. These will go.

My word for him is traitor.

Most of our fish thst we eat is fished in foreign waters. Most of the fish fished in British waters is exported to the eu, except that our waters have failed the test as far as shell fish is concerned and simplynot clean enough to be exported to the EU.

The red tape that the fishing industry has been facing since Brexit has been hugely damaging. Not only does it involve a lot of paperwork but also a vet to approve the catch. What took at the most 16 hours pre-Brexit now takes anything up to 28 hours to reach its European destination. This cannot be so attractive to the buyers.

Post Brexit, the fishermen did not receive any increase in quotas as promised, and where they did increase it was for fish that they didn’t want.

The result of this is that exports have fallen by over 100000 tonnes since Brexit. It has hit the small boat fishermen the hardest.

Half of U.K. quota has been sold to foreign interests and 2/3rds are in the hands of extremely wealthy owners. So we are not talking about your local friendly fisherman here when you shop in your local supermarket- far from it.

Remember that fishing accounts for 0.03% of our economy. Smaller apparently than our biscuit production.

Information gleaned from West Country publications

Talks are happening right now, so we have to wait to see the news conference which is timed to be early afternoon to see what we gain/lose. It's expected we shall be able to sell far more agricultural products, for example, because its intended to reduce the barriers for trade across many areas.

On fishing I consulted google:

"The UK and EU have reached a new agreement extending reciprocal access to fishing waters until June 30, 2038,

a 12-year extension of the previous arrangement

This deal includes reciprocal access for EU vessels to fish in UK waters and UK vessels to fish in EU waters. The agreement also extends energy cooperation on a continuous basis. The agreement was confirmed on May 19, 2025.

Remember it allows us to fish in EU waters.

When the original agreement came into force it did mean less fishing, but the agreement was not simply based on who gets to fish where, but in order to control the depletion of fish stocks in over fished waters

There is an incredibly complicated system of licences which control what sort of fish can be fished where in order to prevent over fishing.

So, firstly, the is no change or loss on what we already have, despite the headlines in some of the press who are in "gotcha" mode: and all the details are yet to come out

Secondly the press totally fails to mention it's tied to dwindling fish stocks and the fact we have access to EU and other waters. The deal also means it will be easier for UK companies to sell the fish they do catch in EU countries

Thirdly the government does recognise its meant difficulties and "Later today the government will also unveil a “fishing and coastal growth fund”, which will be £360 million of investment in coastal communities.

I think we have to look at the deal as a whole not just fishing as we need to find out what it means in terms of security as well as trading.

Quotes are from the BBC newsfeed, which is reporting on all the different negotiations as they come out.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx2jkz3d0drt
I'using the BBC as its an open access newsfeed and detailed.