Tuesday, 4th December 2007

The main plank of the UK Independence Party’s Fishing Policy is the return of our fishing grounds to national control. Once that is achieved, they can be managed in a sustainable way. UKIP proposes restoring British waters and fishing to national control by leaving the Common Fisheries Policy, abandoning all quotas and strictly forbidding “discards”.

• In co-operation with scientists and working fishermen, introducing technical measures and net design to be more selective, allowing immature fish and non targeted species to escape.
• Requiring all commercial species fish caught, regardless of size or species, to be landed and recorded in order to compile meaningful figures to establish a Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) and to plan accordingly.
• Establishing Minimum Landing Sizes (MLS) for all commercial species and ensuring that only fish above the MLS are offered for sale. All undersized fish to be confiscated and processed into either fish meal or fertilizer, proceeds from the sale of which will go towards administrative costs.
• Establishing a system of moveable “No Take Zones” seasonally to allow fish to spawn or whenever an area is considered to be over fished, to allow it to recover.
• Banning all forms of “industrial” fishing and pair trawling for bass. Restricting beam trawling to those areas considered suitable by working fishermen and scientists.
• Licensing foreign fishing boats with a proven record of fishing in the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone to continue for a transition period of say, five years, provided they observed British rules with regard to MLS, recording undersized fish, net design and mesh sizes and days at sea. Licences would not be offered to foreign boats in receipt of EU subsidy and foreign boats would not be licensed to fish in UK territorial waters (12-mile limit). After the transition period, licences would only be issued to foreign boats if fish stocks were in excess of British boats’ catch capability in accordance with UN Law of the Sea Convention rules.
• Building artificial reefs.
• Encouraging Mariculture (fish farms).
• Establishing a Fisheries College and a Crew Training School and conducting properly structured training programmes.
• Taking advice from Norway and Iceland to establish a Fishing Ministry separate and distinct from DEFRA overseeing a Fishing Management Agency and co-ordinating the activities of the existing Sea Fisheries Committeess, which would become the “front line” of sustainable management of our fish stocks.
• Strengthening the fishery protection service and prevailing on the Ministry of Defence to provide adequate Naval ships to effect distant water patrols (minesweepers in a dual role).

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