Fly-shooting is a controversial fishing technique
Credit: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
The EU has been accused of a land grab by fishing groups as it has drastically increased the amount of fly-shooting boats in UK waters.
Fly-shooting is a controversial fishing method in which multiple nets are used to encircle and capture entire shoals of fish, and heavy ropes drag across the ocean floor, displacing whatever is underneath.
There were originally just a handful of fly-shooters in our waters, but now there are 75 high-powered boats using the method all across UK waters to scoop up bass and mullet.
The Chair of New Under Ten Fishermen s Association Jeremy Percy told The Fishing Daily: According to French inshore fishermen, it is a waste of time going to sea after these boats have been fishing locally as there is nothing left.
Ted Heath, the former Tory Prime Minister (Image: GETTY)
“Ms Prentis (who infamously admitted to having not read the Withdrawal Agreement as she was too busy organising her local Nativity Trail) promised that ‘..any access negotiated with the EU will cover only the UK’s exclusive economic zone, and not the 0 to 12 mile zone. That remains the case’.”
However, Mr Percy said the week before the Agreement was signed, no fewer than 17 large Belgian beam trawlers had been working the six-mile line between Hastings and Brighton.
He added: “It is little wonder then that our own inshore fishermen’s main complaint these days is that there are few fish making it through this European curtain of large scale fishing effort and to within reach of these smaller scale fishermen.
| UPDATED: 21:28, Tue, Mar 9, 2021
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Boris Johnson s Brexit deal allows European boats access to the seas of the UK coast until June 2026 when negotiations on future fishing rights will resume again. But British skippers claim the deal stacks the cards against them with huge European trawlers still plundering fishing stocks and warned the industry could collapse before the existing deal expires.
| UPDATED: 09:20, Sun, Dec 20, 2020
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Lord Frost and Michel Barnier’s respective teams will continue talks in Brussels on Sunday in a bid to close the huge gaps on fisheries and the so-called level playing field – the main obstacles to a deal. A UK Government source said the bloc would need to make a “substantial shift” for a deal to be agreed, adding: We cannot accept a deal that doesn t leave us in control of our own laws or waters.”
By Harry Holmes2020-12-15T10:17:00+00:00
Fishing remains one of the outstanding issues in the UK-EU negotiations
Food businesses are increasingly concerned over threats from French fishermen that goods will be blockaded from entering Europe if a no-deal Brexit excludes their boats from operating in UK waters.
Dimitri Rogoff, president of Normandy’s regional fisheries committee, told French radio on Monday his members would stop ferries carrying British goods entering French ports if they are prohibited from entering UK waters next year. Rogoff added he would expect Dutch and Belgian fishermen to do the same.
The threat has exacerbated existing concerns among some British businesses who fear French fishermen may take actions into their own hands. Richard Hampton, MD of Omsco dairy co-op, said the risk of a blockade was “very much underestimated”, with the business already planning to halt exports to Europe from Boxing Day, for at least the first few weeks of the year.