Commercial Fishing
Mr. Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the U.K.

AN OPEN LETTER TO

Gentlemen:
We write this letter to you in serious urgency. It is said that a general agreement as to whether or not our two countries will or will not be accepted into the European Economic Community is to be made by June this year, or thereabouts. By this we assume that the negotiators will have given a general acceptance to the terms offered us by the present members of the EEC, either as they stand now, or with last-minute modifications.

It is with dismay and apprehension that we have witnessed the casual manner in which our governments have treated the question of fisheries in these negotiations. Fishing may only play a small part in our national economies but it does involve the capital investment of many millions of pounds in catching units, harbour facilities, and shore plants in addition to providing a livelihood for tens of thousands of people, not only in the catching side but in many ancillary industries.

At no time in the long history of. fishing in these islands has our industry been in such a high state of efficiency and with such a bright outlook ahead. True, the industry is not as efficient as some of those in the EEC countries, but it is rapildy moving in the right direction. The long toil by the men over the past few years is now beginning to reap dividends.

Yet all this is threatened with extinction by the present Common Fisheries Policy of the EEC. There are many points in this policy that, were they accepted by us, could seriously reverse the fortunes of our fisheries. There is, however, one over-riding point that would without doubt result in the certain collapse of a greater part of our industry.
It is the ruling that all member states of the EEC have an equal right of access to the coastal waters of their partners iii the Community that is causing despair within the industry.

The coastal waters around the European and Scandinavian coasts have for long been among the most productive in the world. But over the years indiscriminate overfishing, the introduction of over-intensive catching methods, and the destruction of immature stocks have resulted in many of these coastal waters becoming barren.

The British Isles has some excellent coastal fishing grounds, and as our fisheries in general have always been behind the continent in efficiency and productivity, our grounds are more or less still quite productive. In fact, for certain species, such as the herring, the coastal waters of the British Isles are now the last stronghold for these stocks. Most are protected from foreign vessels by being within our 12 mile fishing limits. Because of this the Continentals and Scandinavians cannot pursue these stocks with their own catchers so they have to send freighters to buy the fish from British and Irish catchers, in order to fulfil the tremendous demand back home. This is just one species that the highly-efficient vessels from these countries cannot pursue because of the protection of our limits.

Having slaughtered the herring stocks in their own waters, they are now eagerly awaiting the time when they can come inside our limits. They do not hide their eagerness to get us in the EEC for this one reason. But unlike the fishermen of the British Isles, who have in general a healthy regard for the conservation of existing stocks in order to safeguard their future, these continentals do not. We can see ample evidence in the way they have wiped their own coastal stocks out. Now they want to do the same here.

There have been many ‘expert’ views put forward by economists and others on the advantages and disadvantages of our entry into the EEC on the current terms of the Common Fisheries Policy. Almost to a man they have failed to take into account the practical aspects of such a move. Obviously they don’t know what these are. Yet there is no-one within our industry who cannot forsee the result of our exclusive 12 mile fishing zone being taken away or modified.

Various alternatives have been put forward in order to try and get around this obstacle. Certain breeding areas will be protected; differential limit lines in different areas; and the interests of the fishermen will be fully taken into account, etc. etc. Anyone who is involved in the practical side of fishing can see that these would just not be workable and are only political gimmicry.

Source: Peter Brady
Commercial Fishing
30/04/1971