An update from the President, Elizabeth Stevenson

It was 30 years ago on 4th April 1977 that fishermen from around the coast took the historic first steps to establish the NFFO. To defend their livelihoods in the negotiations running up to the Common Fisheries Policy agreement in 1983, it was recognised that fishermen would have to put aside their differences and concentrate on what united them in order for their voice to be heard.

The 30 years since those initial first steps has seen huge changes in our industry. Nevertheless, that fundamental purpose has remained at the core of what the NFFO is and what it does.

Today there is an incomparably wider range of issues confronting our industry than faced our founders. Environmental concerns, maximum sustainable yield, recovery plans and many other issues all impinge on fishing operations and are likely to do so into the indefinite future. As the industry it represents has changed, the NFFO has changed and adapted to meet the new challenges. No fisheries organisation in Europe has put so much effort into making the infant regional advisory councils realise their potential. Again and again the NFFO has taken the lead in shaping a management regime that delivers sustainability but does it in a way that allows fishermen to earn a living in the meantime.

The Federation does not work alone and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those in other fishermen’s associations, in government, in the scientific community who have worked collaboratively with the NFFO. The fishing industry will continue to have mixed fortunes – good years and bad years, good management and not so good. It is, however, vitally important that the NFFO continues to fight for a rational management system that has the support and the involvement of fishermen.

It is my sincere belief that continual, consistent, pressure along these lines will move us, if not to nirvana then to a system of managing our fisheries that is worthy of respect and emulation.