News

NFFO Response to the Commission’s Non-Paper on the Development of a TAC for Seabass

14 August 2012

We are wholly opposed to the suggestion that bass should be incorporated into the system of TACs.

The Evidence Free Campaign to Limit Fishing Grounds

14 August 2012

Is the fishing industry the victim of double standards? We have become accustomed to offshore projects such as wind farms and aggregate dredging receiving planning consent based upon an official assessment that individual projects have minimal environmental impacts.

Commission Proposal for Deepwater Stocks in the North East Atlantic: Response by the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO)

14 August 2012

The European Commission has made a Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing specific conditions to fishing for deep-water stocks in the North East Atlantic (COM(2012) 371 final).

Meeting With the Marine Management Organisation

13 August 2012

The frustrations of dealing with two management bodies was a recurrent theme at the most recent NFFO/MMO meeting, held in the Federation’s offices, in York.

Day Trip for Journalists

13 August 2012

It's not difficult to understand the appeal for journalists on a day trip to the coast from London, of the story that the small -scale fishing fleet has been robbed of its birthright by "quota barons".

VMS and E-Logbooks: Implementation Issues

9 August 2012

The NFFO is pressing the UK Fisheries Minister taking advantage of an EU exemption from the requirement for vessels between 12m and 15m to fit satellite monitoring equipment.

Far Away in Time

6 August 2012

The frustrating experience of being told by government officials that their hands are tied by decisions taken years ago, has taught the NFFO a valuable lesson: the importance of being in at the start.

Deep Water Alarm Bells

31 July 2012

Displacement Threat to Recovering Stocks in Western Waters

With friends like these

31 July 2012

One wonders how long the corporate types at Greenpeace took to settle on the campaign slogan “Be a fishermen’s friend”.

TACs to Increase to Cover Discards

16 July 2012

The Commission has made it clear that it is prepared to propose significant increases in TACs to address the current problems of TAC generated discards.

Fleet Overcapacity: Problems and Solutions

16 July 2012

The European Commission has convinced itself, with the assistance of the European Court of Auditors, that publicly funded decommissioning of fishing vessels does not represent good value for tax payers’ money.

Policy Logjam

11 July 2012

It has become a commonplace, accepted in all quarters, that the Common Fisheries Policy is a big, unwieldy, unresponsive beast.

A Register of Quota Holdings – Now an Imperative

2 July 2012

The requirement for a register of quota holdings (FQAs*) in the UK has now become an absolute imperative, if only to quell the waves of almost hysterical speculation in the press and Parliament.

Maximum Sustainable Yield in Mixed Fisheries

29 June 2012

Signs of a less dogmatic approach to the application of MSY in mixed fisheries may be emerging from the European Commission.

NFFO Executive Committee

27 June 2012

The NFFO Executive Committee met recently in York to address the main issues currently confronting the fishing industry.

Dose of Legal Reality for No Take Zones

27 June 2012

Defra has given the MPA Fishing Coalition a clear assurance that fisheries management measures that would ban fishing outright in so called reference area Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ) must be consistent with the legal requirements that fishing must be deemed to be damaging to the conservation features of an MCZ in order for it to be subject to limitation or a ban.

Further! Faster!

18 June 2012

The environmental NGOs' disappointing, although not altogether surprising, response to the Council of Ministers' agreement on a 'General Approach' to CFP reform last week in Luxembourg, was that it didn't go far enough, and the timetables were insufficiently demanding.

CFP Reform: Council Agree ‘General Approach’

13 June 2012

The Council of Ministers reached political agreement on a ‘General Approach’ to CFP reform in the early hours of the morning of 13th June.

Nephrops Work at Critical Stage

1 June 2012

Work on a long-term plan for the North Sea Nephrops fishery has reached a critical stage in the North Sea Regional Advisory Council.

Black Arts

29 May 2012

The Black Arts of media distortion are again moving to the fore, as CFP reform reaches an important staging post at the Council of Ministers in Luxemburg on 19th June.

Regionalisation of the CFP

28 May 2012

Regionalisation of the Common Fisheries Policy has moved centre stage since the NFFO (amongst others) advocated it, over a decade ago

Northern Ireland Marine Bill: Avoiding the Pitfalls

25 May 2012

There is much to learn from the experiences of the UK and Scottish Marine Acts in taking account of the needs of fishing communities and the environmental consequences of changing marine use.

Meeting with Minister on Under-10m Issue

21 May 2012

A small NFFO delegation, representing a cross-section of the Federation’s membership, recently met UK Fisheries Minister, Richard Benyon, to discuss in detail the government’s approach to resolving the problems faced by part of the under-10m fleet. The meeting was primarily focused on the issues raised in a recent NFFO letter to the Minister.

Concordat

21 May 2012

The recently published and long awaited concordat that will in future govern relations between the four UK fisheries administrations has moved a considerable distance from its origins in the Scottish Government’s attempt to establish its own separate quota management system with a ‘tartan tag’ on ‘Scottish quota’.