There is currently a lot of press coverage over the alleged wrongdoing by Stevensons and several fishing vessel owners - all based at Newlyn - some 6 years ago.
At that time a wholly unmanageable regime of quota restrictions had been introduced and good fish caught as a by-catch (i.e. not the primary species being fished for) had to be dumped over the side dead as the boats were not allowed to land it. The allegations are that people found a way round the system by fiddling.
Be this true or not, what is DEFRA trying to achieve by their current actions ?
Are they trying to finish the fishing industry at Newlyn - or create a vacuum for perhaps the
Spanish to fill ??
Whatever the outcome, this is surely nothing but bad news for the already beleaguered local
fishing industry - weighed down with an unbelievable amount of regulation and burocracy, lots of
it achieving nothing but ensuring the continuation of the burocrats` jobs.
... right of reply as always.
... 70 tons of cheap Spanish mackerel imported to Newlyn this week severely depressing the
price for locally caught fresh mackerel ...
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Chris & Sue |
20 April |
Last week we were staying at Paul in the home of a mackerel hand-liner
fisherman friend who was himself away on holiday. On the evening we
arrived I went into Newlyn to buy supplies. Saw a bit of smoked mackerel
on the shelf in the supermarket thought "Sue would fancy that for
supper". Then I saw "PRODUCE OF SCOTLAND" on the label so I left it
where it was. How can this make sense, in the largest fishing port in
the South of Britain, to offer for sale fish landed and processed
hundreds of miles which is available as a local product? This from a
chain that prides itself (largely justifiably in my opinion) on being
ethical and responsible etc. I suppose the local manager can't be
blamed, has to sell what is sent, but it made me see red and I've
written to the head office to say so.
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22 April |
Yesterday (Saturday) morning, the price to fishermen for medium fresh Cornish mackerel on Newlyn market was 20p per kilo - wonder how that compares with the current supermarket price ?!
Of course, what you are seeing in the supermarket as Cornish mackerel may well actually be Spanish-caught mackerel imported into Cornwall and distributed from there !
The whole thing is one very big racket with the fishermen being ripped off at every chance.
Spain is very likely one of those countries where the government values the fishing industry and probably subsidises it - no doubt with money from Europe... a very different story to this country where the government is hell-bent on destroying sustainable traditional fisheries with ill-conceived regulations in the name of conservation under pressure from Angling lobbies and Greenpeace etc. ( Many more potential votes than from fishermen !).
Nothing wrong with practical conservation - and the vast majority of fishermen support the principle - but here is a typical example of a sustainable fishery being ripped off !
Right of reply as always - perhaps one of the Newlyn fish buyers would like to explain the reasons for the low prices ? .... don`t hold your breath...
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