Mr McCulla is meeting fishermen in ports across England and Wales as part of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO’s) outreach project, which he has described as being of tremendous benefit to him and the NFFO.

Mr McCulla said he hopes that the many fishermen he has already met have also found the discussions helpful – in January he met fishermen in the North East and South East of England.

He went on:: “It’s very clear that while there is an element of competition between all fishermen, there are a lot of common issues facing the industry in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and indeed Scotland.

“ Big national and European issues such as days at sea and quota management dominate the agenda for many industry representatives, but there’s a multitude of local inshore issues facing fishermen all around the coast that run the risk of being ignored, such as proposals targeted at inshore trawlermen working from Sussex or the problems associated with amenity developments in places like Newbiggin.”

He said one way of dealing with such issues was to co-ordinate fishermen’s activities, because a lesson learned in one part of the country could provide help for fishermen in another part of the UK. “During my discussions along the coast of Kent and Sussex, I learned at first hand the problems associated with marine aggregate dredging and those are lessons we can apply off the County Down coast in Northern Ireland where a proposal for aggregate dredging has been submitted,” he said.

Fishermen have already raised a wide range of problems with Mr McCulla, including under 10 metre quota management, on which “very useful” discussions were held in Hastings, as well as issues relating to visiting trawlers, “be they,” as he put it, “ from Northern Ireland at North Shields or vessels from Southampton visiting fishing grounds off Selsey.”

Mr McCulla said there were issues that the NFFO can help with, but all the fishermen he had met agree on one major thing, which is that fishermen must remain united if they are to have any hope of securing a better future for their industry.

“ The industry’s enemies continue to use that classic tactic - divide and conquer, and it’s been heartening to hear fishermen agree that this must be stopped.” he contended.

He also said that it was encouraging to see positive developments and hear about projects which proved how resilient the industry is and that there is optimism about the future. “Proposed quayside and harbour developments in North Shields and Folkestone, as well as the recent and inspiring investment at Rye, do give much needed encouragement.”

The next port meetings are in South Wales - Ian Wisby, Chairman of South and West Wales Fishing Communities and Alan McCulla would like to invite all local fishermen, both members of the NFFO and non-members to meetings at Milford Haven on February 7 and Swansea the next day.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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