Re: Flexible extension???
Originally Posted by
Solasch
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In 2015, the*CFP allocated*the United Kingdom a total of 612,612 tonnes of quota from more than 100 different fish and shellfish stocks. The total EU quota for these stocks was 2,069,202 tonnes, so the UK was allocated 30% of these fish (and shellfish) quotas.
These figures include various fish which live beyond the boundaries of UK waters, such as Arctic cod and west of Ireland sole. If one considers the 73 different fish stocks which live in UK waters, the total EU quota was 1,920,915 tonnes, of which 585,211 tonnes was allocated to the UK (which also happens to be 30%). Individual quota allocations differ according to stock, as figure one below shows. For example, the UK gets 84% of the North Sea haddock quota, 81% of North Sea monkfish quota and 98% of west of Scotland prawn quota; but only 4% of North Sea sprat quota, 18% of northern hake and 28% of North Sea plaice.
https://theconversation.com/fact-che...f-europe-39966
Figure 1. 2015 quota allocations for 73 stocks which live in UK waters, grouped by region (% in brackets refers to the proportion of total quota the UK received in each region). The numbers on each bar refer to the percentage of EU quota allocated to the UK (note West of Scotland Mackerel is off the scale, as EU quota was over 420,000 tonnes).
Finally thanks to Google (again) I get an answer
The EU allows the UK ~25% of the overall quota of fish to be fished from our own territorial waters. Weird huh ? It's our own waters but we have to give away 75% of fishing to other countries who sell it back to us at huge profits...
But it's not just the fish that is the issue - it's the damage that the CFP did to our fishing industry (considering we are an island surrounded by our own waters) where, over the past 40 years or so we have seen around 60% of our national fleet being scrapped thanks to the CFP since we joined.
You might think that 25% is a generous figure as well in the broad scheme of things seeing as there are 28 member states. Well, it isn't because firstly, the UK territorial waters belong 100% to the UK, and, before you start claiming that we own the waters but not the fish, then understand that you cannot get to these fish without being in our waters in the first place.
Of that 25% quota there are around 25% of the UK fleet (probably a lot more) that are foreign flag boats, quota hopping to get the UK share of the quota. What happens is, companies like Spain register a company in the UK and then register their boats as UK vessels ... except the boats never return to a UK port, unloading in Spain or France or Holland ... effectively stealing chunks of the 25% quota that have been given to the UK by the EU.
The other horrifying part of the quota system is discards. The EU claims to be conservationist and "environmentally friendly"... it's a big joke and the EU should be treated as criminals for implementing it. Should a trawler catch (say) 40 tonnes of whiting, then discover they have come across a large shoal of cod that is a much more expensive fish to sell, the 40 tonnes of whiting go over the side dead and instead the trawlers grab the cod. How on earth is this conservationist or environmentally friendly ? It's a criminal act - pure and simple but allowed because the unelected, unaccountable bastards in the EU allow it.
In (I think) was 2017, more whiting was put back dead than landed... how's that for environmentally friendly and conservationist, and this goes on day in, day out.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel ..
When we leave the EU we will take back our fishing waters and then get rid of the catastrophic quota system and the Dutch, Spanish, Portugese and French flag boats. We will have a policy of land everything you catch and fishing licenses issued to foreign vessels with permits based on number of days at sea, beam length of the vessel and territories it can fish. Only boats that return to a UK port will be classed as British with the revenues made going directly back to the ports/regions to rejuvenate our industry and boost the economies of coastal towns such as Grimsby, Whitby, Lowestoft etc.
If we do this, we should net the UK about 6 billion a year in fishing alone and jump start the coastal towns into prosperous free-ports, fish processing industries and all the trappings such as tourism, recreational sea angling retail sales, commercial charter fishing boats, B&B's, restaurants etc etc that have been absolutely decimated over the past 40 years or so. Any fish caught poaching should be toad back to the nearest UK port, impounded and fined to the value of the boat plus the catch that has been boarded. If the skipper can't pay then the boat is auctioned into the UK fishing fleet.
We can then increase the number of inshore MCZ's to ensure we can maintain our fish stocks and promote sustainability.
Getting rid of the CFP was one of the main reasons for me leaving. I'm a recreational sea angler of about 20 years, a member of B.A.S.S, campaigner for Fish Fight, Colchester Sea Angling Club, and Fish for Leave.