SofteningTheBlow

2FisheriesSummary of sector & EU’s involvementThe UK’s fishing industry is not what it once was, but stillremains important to coastal regions. 12,450 people workin UK fishing directly, (5,900 based in England, 1,000 inWales, 4,700 in Scotland and 800 in Northern Ireland.)627,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish were landed in 2012,worth a total of £770 million to the UK economy. TheBritish sea-fishing fleet consists of 6,406 fishing vessels ofvarious sizes. 1The EU affects the fishing industry in several ways.One of the prices Britain had to pay to join the EuropeanCommunity under Ted Heath was to open up formerlynational waters to EC access in 1970. All EU fishermencan now fish all EU waters. To prevent overfishing, theEC/EU built up a complex system of quotas for how muchof what stock could be fished each year per area (‘totalallowable catch’, TAC). These quotas are regularly resetby meetings of member states’ fisheries ministers.Fishermen tend to blame this Common Fisheries Policyfor threatening their livelihood, either by setting quotastoo low to be profitable, or those of other countries toohigh due to political pressure, which can be damagingto long-term stock sustainability. 2 Britain has a particularcomplaint following the Factortame court decisions,which ruled that a Spanish company that had boughtBritish-registered vessels could take advantage of theBritish quota.The problem over overfishing has continued to· 25 ·