UK fishermen are angry with Brussels as they are being forced to throw away “thousands and thousands of pounds of dead fish over the side because Brussels tell us we have to.”
The European Union put in place fishing quotas in an attempt to protect the future of the industry, UK fishermen are branding this as “disgusting.”
Once UK commercial fishermen have reached the strict limit the they are forced to throw fish back into the sea dead or alive, however EU states have much larger quotas than the UK.
Skipper, Pete Buckland said, “We’re throwing thousands and thousands of pounds of dead fish over the side because Brussels tell us we have to.
“Whichever countries keep what they can because they have more slice of the pie so I think fishermen want our waters and our quotas back.”
Another fisherman said, “They’re got more quotas than we’ve got fish in our sea.”
Speaking on BBC’s Cornwall, The Fishing life a fisherman said, “Hake is worth a lot of money and we’ve got to chuck them away, simply as that.”
The skipper added, “We had a decent start over the first couple of days that was ok. Now we’re coming up against quota and we’re running out.
“I pretty much caught the amount of sole and haddock that I want to catch for this trip.
“It’s difficult fishing when sometimes you don’t want to catch it.
“It’s not in my nature to tow away from fish but I’m afraid the way the quota system is we have to do it so that we can work all year and the vessel can work all year.”
Many EU skippers are fearful over a very uncertain future, as one fisherman said “I can’t really accept the argument of handing anything back to the UK.”
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