British fisheries are just another UK industry in a state of limbo over exactly how Brexit will impact them in the long-run.
The UK’s fishing industry, traditionally concentrated in heartlands such as Grimsby, Whitby and Fleetwood, has been in decline for several years, with chronic overfishing in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the EU’s controversial Common Fisheries Policy, seen as hastening its demise.
After decades of fishing under what they perceive as unfair quotas set by Europe, much of the industry supported the Brexit vote, grasping the opportunity to take back control. Some 93 per cent of the industry backed the vote in 2016 to leave the EU.
But it is not only British fishermen who have their eyes on increased fishing rights post-Brexit; indeed. some European fishermen think it is only fair they are permitted access to British fishing territories once a trade deal is struck between the UK and the EU.
From our point of view, if they get free access to the European market, we should also have free access to fish in the British fishing zone, Niels Wichmann, head of the Danish Fisherman’s Association told The Independent in September.
Indeed, the UK’s environment secretary Michael Gove, one of the leading government proponents for Brexit, was forced to concede that some European vessels would still be able to fish in UK waters after a new trade deal is struck.
The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, introduced in 1964, allowed some European vessels to fish closer than ever before to the British coast, with UK vessels gaining greater access to European waters.
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