FISHTOWN: EPISODE 2 - Take 20 minutes for an insight into the fishing industry in the NE of Scotland in Episode 1 of NEW fishing documentary Fishtown!
Catch it on BBC1 Scotland - 1930 - Mondays
This is the industry, way of life and heritage we are campaigning for.
To save, make safe and rejuvenate to be a sustainable, multi-billion pound industry – a world leader equal to Norway.
We hope our nation, and our governments, can look to now hold fishing in equal esteem as the Norwegians. To husband our greatest renewable resource as a national asset that can inject huge prosperity to rural coastal communities.
With the freedom Brexit provides we can work with our Nordic neighbours in co-operation for mutually beneficial access and sharing arrangements. It is vital that post-Brexit our government is as equally forthright and no-nonsense with foreign vessels around our waters as the Norwegians are in policing theirs.
The Series shows stocks are hugely abundant, with good catches from healthy stocks by those boats that have survived years of inept management by the CFP. A policy that devastated so much of British fishing many stocks and grounds see little mortality.
The natural ingredients are there, but there are huge regulatory issues that need addressed by the freedom Brexit provides. By tackling them we can hopefully see an expanding family owned fleet replacing the 60% scrapped by the EU.
A fleet taking advantage of regaining 3/4 of British resources EU fishermen take directly or through EU owned UK registered 'Flagships'.
With discard free policy and accurate science we can move to management that allows young men a career with progression from deck to wheel house. An absolutely VITAL action so as to attract a next generation of young Britons to replace one lost. A loss that's led to a severe recruitment shortages replaced with foreign labour from around the world.
The Fleet in NE Scotland is particularly suffering from the ability of shore based 'slipper skippers' who are allowed to rent entitlement to fish to hard working skippers at sea.
They are bleeding on avg 60% of the profit from the industry, stifling recruitment and reinvestment for many.
Govt must have the guts to tackle this to see a rejuvenation to the boom towns they once were in Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Macduff, Banff, Buckie and all the communities in between.
