French Fishermen attack our Boats

I’m sure you like me, seethed this morning when reading about our Scallop Fishermen being attacked by French fishermen over our boats fishing the scallop beds off the French coast. Apparently, it’s because our fishermen are allowed to fish for them without restrictions whilst the French are only allowed to fish between October and May because of a law brought in by Macron himself.
So why the hell are they attacking our boats? Surely their beef is with their stupid President?

I truly hope that when we leave, the French will be strictly controlled in our British waters. No more Europeans registering their boats in Britain for a start, and Protection ships to ensure the EU fishing mobs are chased out if trespassing! The cheeky beggers have thought nothing of emptying their own seas of fishing stock and spent the last 40 odd years plundering British fishing waters.

How dare they retaliate over Scallops.

Re: French Fishermen attack our Boats

Excellent post!

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You would hope so wouldn't you but our own stupid PM seems to busy 'dancing' to worry about the French.

Any other Country would hold an enquiry into the incident but I know what will happen here....... nothing as usual.

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Saw this yesterday, will the EU punish them no way part of the continuing harassment.

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Of course we didn't do the same to Iceland some years back. Remember the Cod wars???

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Sadly the seas have no borders so it is easy for fishermen to break the approved fishing rules! I am sure we all would if it meant that we couldn't feed or keep a roof over our family's head.

Perhaps if we all used a bit less fish ( I always wonder how much gets wasted ) the number of fish in our seas could increase, if they don't die from all the plastic we put in there!

There are too many people on this planet and if we don't reduce them there will not be enough food for all! It is strongly believed that there will be food shortages in the not too distant future, so our generation will be ok, but they are already trying to turn insects into protein foods... so there is a chance your grandchildren will be eating them!

It is not different countries that cause these problems, it is humanity in general!

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And we are supposed to CLAM up and not retaliate

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That's a good point Twink. It really annoys me when these poncy TV chefs cook small bits of fish and the rest is thrown away. Spider crabs for instance are caught only for their legs and there's hardly anything on them.

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Joe, there are some similarities but the circumstances vastly different as English and Scottish fishermen were fishing LEGALLY here.

The cod wars between Iceland and Britain occurred between 1950’s and 1970’s and happened because British fishermen had always fished in the cod rich waters off Iceland. There were no 200-mile fishing exclusion limits anywhere at that time. Iceland had a 2-mile zone in place.

Iceland started the Cod wars off by making a 12-mile zone which included the rich cod fishing, The spats happened because the British ignored this new zone as they thought it unfair. They even had British naval vessels supporting them. Then Iceland brought in a 50-mile exclusion zone which at the time cut the British fishing fleet’s ability to catch cod to severe cuts. There were many altercations between the Icelandic coast guard and British naval vessels as the coast guard attempted to cut British fishing nets.
The final spat which became quite serious occurred in the early 70’s I believe, when Iceland declared a 200-mile exclusion zone in which British naval vessels accompanied British trawlers inside the zone as Britain said the fishing rights should be decided diplomatically not by warfare on the seas, It was the USA who finally settled it with persuasion to the British to respect the exclusion zone as Iceland threatened to close the locally based American base which protected the Atlantic during the height of the Cold War. Of course, the 200-mile zone became the norm after that.

The decision by Britain to respect the 200-mile Icelandic exclusion zone resulted in devastating losses to ports such as Hull and Grimsby, with 1,500 fishing jobs and thousands of associated shore jobs lost forever. Scottish fishermen suffered very badly too.

On the other hand, Iceland, NOT PART OF THE EU, has thrived ever since, being renowned as one of the largest and wealthiest fisheries in the world!