Now is the time to ramp up post-Brexit protection of UK waters in EU talks

OPINION

I have often said that our fishers have as much interest as anyone else in ensuring the sustainability of our marine ecosystems. At the end of the day if there are no fish, there is no fishing. For an industry that still often operates passing a business down the generations that really matters.

It is also true, however, that the further a fisherman is from his home port, the less likely it is that he will care about conservation. Nowhere is this more apparent in the waters around the United Kingdom than in the industrial-scale gill net fishing of the sort done by foreign boats. Their practices are dangerous to our fishermen and destructive of our marine environment – now is the time to ramp up protection for our waters and stand up for sustainable, local fisheries management in negotiations with the EU.

Spanish gill-netting boats such as the Pesorsa Dos and the Antonio Maria have behaved like gangsters, hiving off great swathes of the sea and taking reckless actions against local fishing vessels. That lives have not been lost already has had more to do with luck than anything else.

Then there is the environmental damage from discarded gill nets – a massive cause of plastic pollution in our seas and particularly harmful to other marine life, as well as being an enormous nuisance for local fishers who feel a responsibility to clear up these “ghost nets”.

On every level this sort of fishing activity by non-local boats is unsustainable. If this sort of behaviour was happening on dry land there would be massive public outcry. When it happens at sea then it should be no different. Out of sight should not mean out of mind.

That is why the upcoming review of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU is so important. It is probably the best opportunity we shall have in this decade to improve fisheries management, by making sustainability and safe behaviour a condition of access to British waters. For anyone who really cares about our marine environment that should not be a hard deal to make.

The fishing industry is rooted in the coastal communities that define our country. If we all share the interest our fishermen have in a sustainable marine environment – and we should – then we need to stand with them to secure a fair deal on the future of access to our waters.

Alistair Carmichael MP is chair of the Environment, Food/Rural Affairs Committee