Image: International Business Times / FIS
Gripes In Grimsby Over Brexit Fishing Failure
UNITED KINGDOM
Thursday, July 13, 2023, 07:00 (GMT + 9)
The following is an excerpt from an article published by International Business Times:
Grimsby, perched on the southern side of the River Humber, near Kingston-upon-Hull in northern England, was built on the fishing industry.
Some 70 percent of people in the town voted for Brexit, hoping that the UK's departure from the European Union would boost its flagging fortunes.
Source: International Business Times
But seven years on from the landmark referendum, those who banked on a turnaround are disappointed, while those who feared it are not taking it lying down.
At 7:00 am, the auction at Grimsby's wholesale fish market in the heart of the town's vast docks is in full swing.
"We have mackerel. 1.5 (pounds) a kilo? 1.7? 1.8? 1.9?" shouts the auctioneer.
For an island nation, fishing is surprisingly small fry, accounting for just 0.03 percent of the British economy. But it still stirs passions.
Then-prime minister Boris Johnson visited the wholesale fish market on the 2019 general election campaign trail, in which he vowed repeatedly to "Get Brexit Done" as divorce negotiations continued three years after the referendum.
Johnson had also said that leaving the EU would bring a "massive boost" to the local fishing industry.
Indeed many of the current traders gathered under the market's strip lighting voted "Leave", hoping it would end European quotas and competition.
But Patrick Salmon, owner of a craft smokehouse, said that hasn't happened.
"The French and the Spanish come to the UK, fish our fish, and then they take it home, process it and sell it back to us," he told.
"That's bonkers. We should have control of our own waters and you lot (Europeans) should be thrown out. However, that will possibly never happen."
Salmon's small business is not unduly affected by Brexit for now, as he gets his fish from Scotland and Iceland.
One day he said he would like to export to France, Belgium and other EU countries, even if it means much more paperwork than before.
Fish market manager Martyn Boyers is another "Leave" voter. He said the UK was so far not doing a very good job of being self-sufficient.
In the mid-20th century, Grimsby was one of the world's leading fishing ports, until the fleets of trawlers began to disappear in the 1970s.
Fishermen blamed the "cod war" over fishing grounds with Iceland, then EU quotas that carved up the seas around Europe, reducing British boats' catch.
At the same time, a generation of sailors died out, their children unwilling to follow their fathers into the profession.
Global warming, which forced fish to migrate north, and overfishing have also contributed to the decline.
Source: International Business Times
Now, the UK's main fishing port is Peterhead, in northeast Scotland, leaving Grimsby with only a handful of specialist boats, a network of traders and processing plants.
Five thousand people are employed in the sector in a town with high unemployment. [Continues...]
Author: Veronique Dupont | International Business Times | Read the full article by clicking the link here
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