View: Our message to Westminster and Whitehall

Kirkella is now the sole British freezer trawler bringing home fish for our national dish from distant waters. As recently as 2022, UK Fisheries operated three vessels, but the abject failure of the fisheries policy of the previous administration forced us to dispose of the Norma Mary and Farnella and lay off a majority of our loyal British crew. Not only has this had a devastating impact on them and their families, it has also dealt a severe blow to the social and economic fabric of the Humberside region.

The sad truth is that a succession of Defra ministers failed to instruct their civil service negotiators to do what they so easily might have done – negotiate a fair and balanced deal with Norway and other trading partners around the North Sea that would have enabled us to maintain our quotas in our traditional grounds.

As it is, we now have less than half of the quotas we fished as recently as 2019; and where once we supplied around one in 12 portions of whitefish sold in British chippies, it’s now just one in 25. Most of the rest is imported from Norway, Iceland, Greenland or – shamefully – Russia.

We do not understand why this was allowed to happen, especially at a time when the previous government was boasting of a post-Brexit “sea of opportunity” for British fishers. What we do know is that a tiny minority (fewer than 30 vessels) of the UK fishing fleet has benefited enormously, while the cost to the others has been devastating. We cannot operate indefinitely at these starkly reduced volumes, and if we are forced to call time on distant-waters fishing then this centuries-old industry will be tragically consigned to history.

It is not too late – or not quite. We at UK Fisheries will continue to campaign for a fair settlement for all British fishers.