Visit us at fishingnews.co.uk £3.25 19 December 2019 Issue: 5494 TURN TO PAGE 2 FOR THE FULL ELECTION BREXIT GREEN LIGHT REPORT Season’s greetings from Seahouses Eyemouth hosts stormbound visiting prawn trawlers Visiting prawn trawlers from the Western Isles take shelter from a northwesterly gale in Eyemouth’s deepwater basin last week. Poor weather at the start of last week, which included severe northerly and southerly gales on successive days, forced the suspension of fishing in the seasonal Farne Deeps winter prawn fishery, reports David Linkie. Wishing all our readers Single and twin-rig trawlers The crews of the Seahouses potting boats Standsure and JJ in festive a Very Merry Christmas from Ardglass, Barra, Fraserburgh, spirit while landing shellfish, to wish ‘Merry Christmas’ to all their Kilkeel, Peterhead, Portavogie and colleagues in the fishing industry. Troon have worked from Blyth, The skippers and crews of the the Longstones on an all-too- Eyemouth and North Shields in Seahouses potting boats Standsure infrequent day of quiet seas and recent weeks alongside local boats. BK 552 and JJ HL 11 made time for crisp winter sunshine. A number of boats from the some early festive celebration earlier this While all fishermen are acutely Western Isles headed north to month, to wish Fishing News readers aware of the impending long-awaited Eyemouth as the poor weather ‘Merry Christmas’ while landing their outcome of Brexit and the importance JJ comes alongside Standsure developed, in the hope of being able daily catches of lobsters and brown of the annual Fisheries Council held in to land shellfish at Seahouses. to push in a day’s work northwest of crab, reports David Linkie. Brussels this week, they are also looking St Abb’s Head, with southerly winds In a month of recurring fresh forward to spending time ashore, forecast for the second half of the weather, the two crews had seized the relaxing with their families at home over week. opportunity to haul static gear east of the festive season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our customers and friends mantsbrite Magnum Pro HD Chart Controller MDC-5000 Black Box Radar IMO GPS Compass & IMO Display 4 x Fully Customisable Function Keys Built-in AIS Interface up to 500 Targets Built-in back up Sensor Stores 30,000 Marks/Events Built-in ATA Tracks up to 50 Targets 5 Heading Data Outputs Stores 1000 Tracks 4kW or 6kW Output Supplied with Colour C-Map Max Chart Overlay Optional Remote Control 4.3”IMO GPS Display ONLY Package with 17” Neovo Choice of 25” Radome, or 3ft, Display & C-Map UK & 4ft or 6ft Open Array FEELING THE CHILL? Ireland Chart only FROM ONLY ENAG 24V RADIATOR Other display options and c/w THERMOSTAT packages available – contact us Display Not Included All Prices exclude Duty & VAT E & O E ONLY Contact Us For Details Of Your Local Dealer Tel: 01621 853003 Email: [email protected] Web: www.mantsbrite.com \\EINSTEIN\marketing\Advertising\Fishing News\Lous\2019\December 2.doc 2 NEWS Visit us at fishingnews.co.uk and on Twitter @YourFishingNews 19 December 2019 Tory election win clears way for Brexit New Year countdown to freedom from CFP The UK is now virtually certain to leave the EU and the CFP on 31 January, after the Conservatives won a healthy majority at last week’s general election, reports Tim Oliver The result means that the Negotiations with the EU very high-level statements, new government will be on access and quota shares referencing co-operation on able to pass the withdrawal from 2021 will begin almost managing shared stocks, broad agreement through parliament immediately after withdrawal, commitments to sustainable by the extended deadline for and are certain to be tough. fishing, and compliance with leaving the EU, in what will be The new government will also the UN Law of the Sea. The a historic day for the British begin negotiations on a free current framework agreement fishing industry. trade deal with the EU. The between the EU and Norway is It means that the UK will, UK government and industry an obvious template. from 31 January, become position is that fisheries and “Negotiations for an annual a legally independent and trade talks must be kept UK-EU fisheries agreement sovereign coastal state with separate, but the EU has for 2021 would be expected the powers to regulate and insisted they will be linked. to occupy the second half of control fishing within its NFFO chief executive Barrie 2020.” “I wonder how electing the biggest numpty in the western 200-mile EEZ/median line. Deas said it was expected There will also be tripartite hemisphere just in order to bog out of the CFP will play A transition period will then that a framework fisheries and bilateral discussions with out with future generations?” begin, lasting until the end of agreement could be concluded coastal states such as Norway 2020, during which the UK will by the end of July. and the Faroes. The content of have to continue to comply He said: “A framework the annual fisheries agreement quota shares and exchanges, EU will try to hang on to the with CFP regulations. agreement could consist of would include setting TACs, and access arrangements. current arrangements, which “Both the EU and the UK work so well to its benefit. accept, under the terms of the In both the EU and the UK, SNP to push for Scottish independence withdrawal agreement, that fishing rights are a matter of The general election results look set to increase England out of the EU, but he must accept that I from the end of the transition high visibility and high political the pressure for a second referendum on have a mandate to give Scotland a choice for an period, their fleets will have no profile.” Scottish independence, after the SNP won 48 alternative future.” automatic right to fish in each Elspeth Macdonald, chief of the 59 Scottish seats, with the Conservatives Scottish fisheries minister Fergus Ewing has other’s waters,” said the NFFO executive of the SFF, said: reduced to just six. The SNP secured 45% of slammed the withdrawal agreement as ‘not chief. “The SFF looks forward to the vote – 8.1% more than in the last general worth the paper it is written on’. He said that the “Access would be subject working with both the UK election in 2017, when it won 35 seats. UK government’s Brexit fisheries promises were to negotiation, as would quota and Scottish governments in With the party committed to Scotland ‘glib, boastful and lacking in substance’. shares and quota exchanges.” the months ahead to secure remaining in the EU and thus in the CFP, a He told Scottish MSPs at Holyrood before He said that the stakes are the best Brexit deal for the vote for independence would have profound the election: “The withdrawal agreement and the ‘very high’ for all parties in the industry. implications for the Scottish and UK fishing associated documents contain no agreement next phase of negotiations with “It is vital for future growth industries. whatsoever on fishing. It was too difficult for the the EU. The UK has made clear that control of UK waters is Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon said UK government to do that – it would not have in its white paper that some restored, and that the country that the country had sent a ‘clear message’ on a got the deal that it had boasted it could get. access could be granted to becomes a coastal state by second independence referendum. “That was too hard, so the documents that EU fleets to fish in UK waters, the end of 2020. That way, our She had already pledged to send a letter to are on the table, which are being presented as subject to the satisfactory governments can determine the prime minister before Christmas requesting a panacea for all the ills of Scottish fishing, are negotiation of revised quota who gets to catch what, where that Holyrood be given the power to hold a simply an agreement to kick the can down the shares. and when around our shores. second independence referendum, reported the road – an agreement to seek agreement later. “The EU has made it equally “We will continue to BBC. “The agreement is not worth the paper that it clear that any free trade engage with Westminster “Scotland has sent a very clear message – is written on. There is no contract, no certainty, deal with the UK would be and Holyrood to secure these we don’t want a Boris Johnson government, we no clarity, no future and no hope. I suspect that contingent on the status quo on fundamentals as negotiations don’t want to leave the EU,” she said. the betrayal will begin shortly after voting has access and quota shares,” said on the fisheries agreement “Boris Johnson has a mandate to take finished.” Barrie Deas. He added: “The begin.” Fears for exports of Irish brown crab to China Once again, Irish exporters impact other agri-food exports towards the EU limits.” or the minister to camouflage problems if consumed at high of live and processed brown from Ireland to China. Mr White and other exporters anything. We are not asking them levels over a prolonged period of crab are facing the prospect of The industry says that the from within the Irish brown crab to turn a blind eye to regulations. time. Cadmium levels in brown operations grinding to a halt over SFPA is now demanding that the industry have written to deputies We are telling them to first of crab caught in Irish waters are the provision of the necessary Chinese standard be adhered to, and senators in a bid to have the all talk to the industry, which is well below the permitted safety health certificates, which the but is refusing to become involved issue raised at Leinster House at the exporters of both live and levels in Europe.