West Coast Committee Engages the Irish Sea Marine Conservation Zone Project

The NFFO West Coast Committee at its recent meeting held in Barrow-in Furness was given presentations on the recently launched Irish Sea Marine Conservation Zone Project and Seafish’s Responsible Fishing Scheme, with members getting a direct opportunity to question the various representatives about the schemes.

NFFO’s Alan McCulla said, “With well publicised closed areas being imposed on fishermen in other areas, projects like the Irish Sea Marine Conservation Zone are met with scepticism, cynicism and down-right fear amongst fishermen, meetings like this one give our members the chance to explain their concerns directly to the project workers, while they in turn used this meeting as a way to try and build bridges with the industry.  On the other hand, Seafish’s Responsible Fishing Scheme is well established and we were all interested to hear how the project is developing across the UK and beyond.”

The Committee also received updates on the huge variety of European and national issues affecting the UK’s fishing fleet.