Navy called upon to defend UK fishing boats against French

[Clairetree1]

so what next?

the French call upon their navy to defend French fishing boats against the British navy?

French and British warships pointing guns at each other?

who would have expected that possibility to be seriously discussed on the news, even as little as 3 days ago?

British fishing boats who feel that Brexit releases them from the "gentlemans agreement" not to fish when the French are leaving scallops to breed.

French fishing boats retaliating with rocks and bottles, ramming, firing flares into British ships, "smoke bombs" ( which some are claiming were actual fire bombs) This is piracy undoubtably

British captains recommending carrying arms, to protect their crews.

Navy called on to provide protection.

The UK government needs to step in and order British ships out of these waters.

The French government needs to investigate the incidents and bring charges, with heavy prison sentences for anyone convicted.

This is ridiculous, and it needs sorting now, before things escalate.

how do you work that out? less than 15% of EU waters are British, so the area Brits could fish extended massively.
The area is irrelevant - the issue is that the amount of fish we’re allowed to catch has decreased massively. 84% of cod caught in the English Channel are allocated to France, and 66% of haddock caught off the coast of Cornwall. In 1972, 80% of the fish caught in British waters were caught by British boats. Nowadays EU boats catch 10 times more fish from our waters than we do. Our fishing industry employs about a third of its previous workforce.

EU quotas have decimated our fishing industry so I’m laughing my back off at the French getting a bit of payback.

You failed to read or understand the bit about the British Government selling off previous British quotas.

EU quotas have decimated our fishing industry so I’m laughing my back off at the French getting a bit of payback.

The choice is simple: quotas, or no fishing industry.

It takes a strange mentality to start a protest movement by burning your own house down while you are still in it.
The rest of the EU don't understand the UK's Brexit actions and despite being British, nor do I.

Why are British fishermen angry at the French for the British government selling off their quotas? Shouldn't they be angry at the government?

how do we have one of the biggest catches in Europe then?

the fish caught by British fishermen will decrease after Brexit, because our own waters are a smaller proportion of the EU waters than the fish we catch are a proportion of the fish caught by the EU.

You cannot compare the fishing industry pre-EU to what it will be after the EU, because most of the British catch pre EU was caught around Iceland, where we are not banned from fishing.

We will also need to introduce our own strict "closed seasons"to protect the sustainability of our own stocks

sorry, that should read we are NOW banned from fishing around Iceland

We will also need to introduce our own strict "closed seasons"to protect the sustainability of our own stocks

Good luck with that, once big business realises it'll cost them dear. Who is going to pay fishermen to sit around not fishing for 6 months of the year ? Vegans ?

The second the UK is out of the EU we'll see enormous fishing factory boats for a few years. Right up until the stocks are gone. Forever. I'm guessing no one bothered to read up about the extinction of the Newfoundland fishing industry in the 1980s ?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Atlantic_northwest_cod_fishery

Pesky facts again.

Bear in mind the unknown, but inevitable effect on fish stocks, location, breeding, and migration patterns of climate change. That's also a factor in any strategy for the future. That's if we're going for anything other than a "fish the fuck out of the sea as quickly as possible" approach.

Basic free-market rules dictate that the rarer fish become (ie. "Cod" ) the more it will cost, and the more lucrative it will become to fish. Quota or no quota. And call me a traitor, and hang draw and quarter me, but based on 35 years of being politically aware in the UK, I have zero confidence in the UK government - any UK government - acting in the best interests of the future.

how do we have one of the biggest catches in Europe then?

A foreign-owned and -crewed boat using a purchased portion of UK quota and flagged out as 'British' is counted as part of the UK fleet.

I was reading about this incident from other sources and it's quite depressing how much anti French bile is spouted. I know btl comments are where trolls live but still...
Leaving aside the actual fishermen involved in this story, I honestly can't think of a time I encountered a comparable level hostility among the general population in France against the Brits. I genuinely don't think the feeling is mutual. However given the level of attention this is given in the British media, I can see how post brexit years will be defined by similar stories and a ramping up of anti French sentiment (anti German too) Depressing.

I honestly can't think of a time I encountered a comparable level hostility among the general population in France against the Brits

Which rather underscores one success story of the UKs membership of the EU, maybe ?

We owe the French a massive debt of gratitude - especially after what we did to them during WW2. (That's the WW2 the UKIPers don't bother learning about. Probably too many big words).

the fish caught by British fishermen will decrease after Brexit, because our own waters are a smaller proportion of the EU waters than the fish we catch are a proportion of the fish caught by the EU.
100% of the fish from a small amount of waters is more than 10-20% of the fish from a large amount of waters. Not counting all the fish we have to throw away because they aren’t “the right species” that the EU permits us to catch. And the higher value of the fish we’d catch considering we’re currently restricted from fishing the more valuable fish such as cod.

We owe the French a massive debt of gratitude
Um, wasn’t it us who liberated them from the occupying Nazis?

BigBlueBubble

Um, wasn’t it us who liberated them from the occupying Nazis?

Well, us and the Americans (or, if you are in the US, just the Americans).

Mers-el-Kébir doesn't receive quite the prominence it should.

100% of the fish from a small amount of waters is more than 10-20% of the fish from a large amount of waters.

Wouldn't that kind of depend on the comparative area and fish population of the 'small amount of water'?

If less than 10-20% of fish available in the whole of EU waters happens to be in the new UK-exclusive waters then your theory falls down a bit doesn't it? 100% of 9% of the available fish is definitely less than 10% of 100% of the available fish after all.

A foreign-owned and -crewed boat using a purchased portion of UK quota and flagged out as 'British' is counted as part of the UK fleet.

Exactly. Because the UK government sold the quotas. And we keep blaming the EU instead of ourselves.

100% of the fish from a small amount of waters is more than 10-20% of the fish from a large amount of waters.

well, we have 13 % of the waters.

and if you take 100% of the fish out, next year there will be 0 fish....

Mr Macron is playing an interesting game and causing some disquiet in France with his comments about the stereotypical French approach to life. At least his words are very much in the direction of reforming and probably improving the EU, he is risking pushing some French quite hard against their more usual take on life (trying to pick words carefully!) and there are protests against him.
The 2 hour lunch break may be a source of amusement to others but certainly here the farmers are putting the hours in and there is not much 'slacking'.
There are almost always negative consequences of doing anything too intensively, over fishing, in this case but monoculture farming and in the USA vast areas of wasteland because intensive crop farming, requiring water pumped from underground has poisoned the land due to it's mineral content. You can intensively rear animals but you then have issues with growth hormones or in the case of Scottish farmed salmon fishing a scandalous amount of waste due to lice and other diseases.
Despite being a 'Brit' I am becoming anti Brit since 17 million of 'you' have trashed my retirement.

Exactly. Because the UK government sold the quotas.

No they didn't. Existing British fishermen sold the quotas along with their boats.

and anyway, these calculations are all a bit rhetorical, as fish swim backwards and forward over the borders anyway.

The only thing we can be sure about is the closed season on our breeding fish.

Beyond that, yes, we will have closed seasons, ans we will have quotas, none of which have been settled yet, but still the amount of fish available to catch is going to partly depend on where the fish feel like swimming.

When we are restricted to such a small area, the catch will be more or less random luck from one day to the next

Splitting hairs, Fishes. The government set up an arrangement by which British fisherman sold their quotas (unknowingly, apparently). Now the fishermen are pissed off and blaming everyone expect the people who could actually be feasibly blamed.

All this talk about fishing quotas is missing the point a bit. Much of the fish caught by the 'British' fleet is actually landed in Spain and Denmark, or landed in Aberdeen and shipped by road to the EU.

I don't know what the EU import tariff is on fish or whether UK boats will be able to land catches at EU ports in future but I suspect things could be less than rosy for 'genuine' UK fishermen if they lose access to the markets for some of fish types we catch off the UK but we just don't eat.

Beyond that, yes, we will have closed seasons

No you won't. For all their "patriotism" backing the fishermen, as soon as the Great British Public discover that sovereignty means paying fishermen to do nothing when they can't fish, sympathy will evaporate.

And closed seasons won't suit the megacorps who need to make money just to stand still.

Once again, we have the example of Newfoundland to learn from. Or not, as the case may be.

well, we will have closed seasons, or we will have no fishing industry...