Nigel Farage was on the European Parliament Fishing Committee and [...] attended one out of 43 meetings

[ipsogenix]

Fantastic quote from Bob Geldof about Nigel Farage:

"You were on the European Parliament Fishing Committee and you attended one out of 43 meetings."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36537180

[PausingFlatly]

And BTW, the industrial restructuring of the 1970s–1990s wreaked havoc in my whole area and my own family.

You know, before you accuse me of being a banker.

[Spinflight]

"It's breath-taking naivety (at best) to claim that quotas are caused by the EU, and will disappear with Brexit."

The quotas are directly because of our membership of the EU. This is an indisputable fact.

We currently get a small percentage of the Total Allowable Catch in our own waters. Also indisputable fact.

The fact that our fishing industry is very small compared to the potential of our waters is actually an excellent thing.

Once we leave the EU it will give the fish stocks time to replenish.

[PausingFlatly]

From 2010, even after increases in stocks: Catches peaked in 1938



'"With sail power, boats could only go at fixed times and only in certain places with a smooth sea bottom," Professor Roberts noted, "But when you got engines, that meant they could fish in any conditions of wind or tide and sea bed."
As waters near the coast became depleted, industrialisation also meant the UK fleet could travel further in search of new grounds - a phenomenon that took off after 1918. But despite the growing power and range, the amount of fish caught for each unit of effort has gone drastically down, with 17 times more effort required now to catch the same amount of fish as compared with the late 1800s.'

[Auti]

There is no point in Farage or indeed any other MEP attending European Parliament Committee meetings at all.

The EU parliament is a talking shop with no power, the commission makes the law.

Geldof is either being stupid or disingenuous.

[PausingFlatly]

Quotas are because of fish-stock management.

That is an indisputable fact.

And won't go away if the UK leaves the EU.

[Spinflight]

Quotas are imposed by the EU, there isn't even a public body that could impose them as it all comes from the EU.

Our fleet is very small, hence leaving the EU will allow stocks to recover.

Better for the fish, better for the fisherman, simply better off out.

[BeakyMinder]

Yes let's crash the entire economy for the sake of a few BoJo fish-themed photo opps. Brilliant.

[PausingFlatly]

It's simply not true.

Quotas will not go away if we leave the EU.

They are a fisheries management tool and will still have to exist within the UK catchment regardless of which body is the co-ordinator.

Brexiters love saying they want to be like Norway.

Here's the Norway's Fisheries Management: "In recent decades, the Norwegian seafood industry has evolved from free fishing to a regulated industry with quotas and licenses. Concessions are distributed on the fleet and assigned by species and gear type. The technological revolution of the postwar era has created such an efficient fishing fleet that stringent regulations are needed to prevent overexploitation of resources."

It doesn't matter how many times you repeat your made-up story, it doesn't make it true.

[Spinflight]

Norway has a large fishing industry hence had to be managed, ours is small as currently the EU steals all of our fish.

Given a few years and the fish stocks replenish we might need quotas but they will be a proportion of 100% not 17%.

It is a clear and valuable gain for brexit.

[BeakyMinder]

This is an informative article. It turns out that the plight of fishermen is maybe not quite so desperate as Spin thinks ...

"It is also worth noting that even now, when stocks are being rebuilt, the UK [fishing] industry’s gross profit margin has increased from a healthy 15% in 2008 to 35% in 2014 and now stands at €367 million, the highest in the EU." !

www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/griffin-carpenter/eu-common-fisheries-policy-has-helped-not-harmed-uk-fisheries-0