DAVY Hill, the president of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, has delivered a more upbeat seasonal mesage to his members for the New Year. He declared that after the nightmares, failures and wrong turnings of the last two decades the NFFO can now see a way forward.
Mr Hill said: "Realising that vision is dependent, in the first instance, on securing a framework that will allow and even encourage it to develop. The coming year will be pivotal. Common Fisheries Policy reform has the capacity to put the fishing industry on the road to a different and better future, a future in which the industry itself is an active rather than passive player. "The review of the EU Cod Recovery Plan opens possibilities of breaking free from the imbecilic cuts in TACs and days-at-sea that have delivered exactly nothing in terms of cod recovery. All of this demands much of the industry. It requires us to be much more involved than the past, not always easy for skippers at sea. It requires us to work together. It requires us to be open to new ways of doing things. Above all it requires us to take responsibility for our own future. " Mr Hill said that a failed and dysfunctional Common Fisheries Policy had been largely responsible for the disappearance of familiar landmarks and the decommissioning of many vessels. The status of fishermen as a courageous band of brothers had been displaced in the public mind as irresponsible destroyers of the marine environment. But instead of railing against this unfairness the industry was fighting back. It was now working with scientists in fisheries science partnerships to deliver a better understanding of fish stocks and the marine environment as a basis for better management. The regional advisory councils were demonstrating that fishermen from different member states and other stakeholders can co-operate to deliver well thought-through, evidence-based advice that should be the basis of policy. Mr Hill said initiatives such as the 50 per cent project and Catch Quotas, if properly designed and applied with the industry’s involvement, can make a substantial and real impact on some of the industry’s more intractable problems, such discard reduction, in a way that dictates from above never do. He also mentioned a number of other initiatives.
Should people be 'stimulated' to eat white fish alternatives to cod?
