The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations
The first round of negotiations towards the annual fisheries agreement between the EU and Norway was held recently in Brussels.
18 November 2011
A constructive meeting with the representatives from the Marine Management Organisation was held in the NFFO offices recently to discuss the arrival of marine spatial planning and in particular, the first two draft marine plans.
17 November 2011
The MPA Fishing Coalition has welcomed UK Fisheries Minister, Richard Benyon’s announcement that further time will be allowed to designate a network of marine conservation zones in UK waters, to allow additional time to collect evidence on their location and boundaries.
14 November 2011
In direct meetings with the UK Fisheries Minister, Richard Benyon, the NFFO has emphasised that securing a halt to cuts in permitted days-at-sea must be an absolute priority for the UK, at the forthcoming December Council
3 November 2011
Past NFFO President Sam Lambourn has recently retired as Chairman of the North West Waters Regional Advisory Council in order to devote more of his time to the operation of his fishing vessel, the 12 metre Lyonesse.
21 October 2011
The NFFO South West Committee elected John Butterwith as its new Chairman at its meeting on 19th October, replacing Rob Penfold who stands down after leading the Committee for the last 3 years.
10 October 2011
A meeting convened by the European Commission to consider the future of the EU Cod Management Plan, in light of its evaluation by STECF/ICES, has failed to shed much light on the immediate future.
4 October 2011
The NFFO South West Committee meets next in Exeter on 19th October.
3 October 2011
After careful consideration, the NFFO's Shellfish Committee has adopted a policy on the crab, lobster fisheries, following a recent meeting in Derby attended by a wide range of port representatives.
27 September 2011
The fishing industry in the South East must prepare itself for a dialogue with fisheries managers at individual site level.
16 September 2011
The idea of capping effort in the UK crab and lobster fisheries has been in circulation for many years without making any significant headway.
12 September 2011
Fishermen in the South East have asked the NFFO to reinvigorate its South East Committee
9 September 2011
A major consultative meeting was held in Brussels on 8th September as a prelude to the autumn decisions on TACs and quotas for next year.
7 September 2011
In a determined attempt to break with the era when fishermen’s knowledge was invariably relegated to the “interesting but unusable” category, the NFFO has introduced a simple-to-use online survey which allows individual fishermen to contribute to the scientific understanding of stock and fleet trends.
6 September 2011
With the site recommendations by the four English regional MCZ projects due to be published on 7th September, a significant stage in the process has now been completed.
2 September 2011
An important change is underway in the relationship between fishermen and fisheries science.
The Federation is gearing up for an extremely busy autumn
30 August 2011
Twelve words have rocked the foundations of the EU Cod Management Plan and have undermined the whole basis of the EU’s strategy for rebuilding the cod stocks in the North Sea, Irish Sea and West of Scotland.
11 August 2011
Extreme positions are being adopted and incendiary language used on the issue of transferable quotas.
10 August 2011
Defra’s public response to the NFFO’s broadside on the imminent transfer of administration over English and Northern Irish vessels which exhibit “ a Scottish fishing pattern” to Marine Scotland fails to address any of the substantive points made by the Federation.
The EU rules which cover technical conservation measures, such as mesh size, minimum landing sizes, and the selectivity of fishing gear generally, have to date been dealt with through the Technical Conservation Regulation.
5 August 2011
Work going on within the North West Waters RAC, on a long term management plan for the Celtic Sea demersal stocks, points the way forward for the future management of mixed fisheries.
3 August 2011
New devolution concordat will hand over control to Scotland
2 August 2011
The stubborn refusal of Irish Sea cod to respond to a whole array of conservation measures is one of the fisheries enigmas of our time.
