Supporting British Fishermen Regain Our Fishing Grounds

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR BRITISH FISHERMEN

In June 2016 the country voted to leave the EU. Amongst the deal and quite importantly at the time fishermen were promised that we would regain control of our territorial waters . This would be for the good of the country and the UK fishing industry. The benefits of this would not only be for the British fishermen, but all the supporting industries, from processors to engineers, fabricators to net makers and all manner of supply industries. More importantly it would give us control over protecting the marine environment as a whole. Recent years have seen a huge influx of large EU fishing vessels, increasingly target our coastal waters right up to 6 miles from our shores, taking advantage of a generous access agreement post Brexit. These vessels are somewhat larger and more efficient than the majority of the current British fleet. They often travel long distances from home ports in Northern Europe to fish our traditional grounds where they can be seen 24/7 working the grounds relentlessly. Meanwhile our smaller sustainable fleet is often tied up in port forced in by weather conditions etc. These vessels often don't return to their home ports for weeks and sometimes months on end, choosing to land into UK ports because of close proximity, and transhipping their catch onto lorries for the journey back to Europe, with no gain to the UK economy whatsoever. The result of this continuous effort on our grounds, have seen  a huge strain on our fish stocks. British fishermen are being squeezed off their traditional grounds, 6-12miles from the shore and being forced to fish more unfamiliar and unsuitable grounds often closer to shore causing greater impact on the smaller inshore fisheries that are already under pressure. .Fishermen and fishermen's organisations have constantly lobbied for a compromise to no avail. To secure our 6-12 mile limit exclusively for our fleet in line with the rest of EU countries is not a lot to ask for and you would assume would be a fair way to deal with neighbouring EU countries who have the same limits for their own territorial waters. We have seen a succession of governments and civil servants renege on their promises of regaining control of our waters time and time again, and we have seen them fail miserably. NOW IS THE TIME WE MUST ACT If we don't regain our waters soon there will be no future for British fishermen. Generations of fishing communities around the British isles will disappear, and all the supporting industries around them. The marine environment will suffer in the long term if the current access to the EU fleet is allowed to continue on our grounds within 12 mile from our shore. HELP US ACT NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE