Take half an hour for an insight into the fishing industry in the NE of Scotland in Episode 1 of the BBC fishing documentary FishTown!
Catch it on BBC1 Scotland – 1930 – Mondays
This is the industry, way of life and heritage we are campaigning for.
To save, make safe and rejuvenate to be a sustainable, multi-billion pound industry – a world leader equal to Norway.
Our government MUST NOT trade away fishing a 2nd time.
Surrendering our greatest natural resource to hollow EU threats on trade in goods and financial services for continued exploitationary access to British waters. The UK contributes 50% of the waters and 60% of the catches to the common EU pot but only receives 25% of the quotas.
British seafood is some of the finest and most in demand in the world – EU markets have high dependency on our seafood and will continue to post-Brexit.
The government must take back FULL control of ALL our waters and resources and use this freedom to implement bespoke British policy to husband our great resource as a national asset that can inject huge prosperity to rural coastal communities for generations to come.
Any future deals on fishing must be on a STRICTLY annual basis and ONLY when the UK receives a reciprocal value of fishing opportunities in return.
If the above happens we will be a normal, independent coastal state – the equal of Norway, Iceland and Faroe, with a multi-billion pound industry exporting high quality sustainable seafood globally.
Government must have the guts to stand firm that they won’t sell out fishing for a trade deal. Something Boris Johnson said would be a “reprehensible” thing to do.
With British policy that – ends the cause of discards; tackles EU owned but UK registered Flagships; repatriates our resources; and ends shore based quota renting “Slipper Skippers”, then we will see a rejuvenation to Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Macduff, Banff, Buckie (and all the communities in between) to the boom towns they once were.