The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
What does the future hold for the fishermen of Arbroath?
Blair Dingwall visits the Angus town, where EU policies are blamed for the harbour’s decline, but which relies on the bloc as a trading partner
Decades ago, names like Endeavour and Sharridale emblazoned the hulls of the large fishing vessels that packed out Arbroath Harbour, and tourists flocked to watch the spectacle of the fish market as men returned from the North Sea with bountiful catches.
Now, the whitefish are gone from the local waters. One at a time, the “big boats” disappeared from the harbour, until the last, the Crystal Tide, sailed from the port for the final time in February 2013.
Today, smaller boats lull in the waters, stacks of creels line the harbour’s edges and white-washed pleasure craft draw the eyes of visitors.
Arbroath Harbour has had to be reborn as a marina for yachts and hobby seafarers and a home to a thriving inshore fleet of small vessels.
The fishermen have markets in Spain and France and are even exporting live catches to China. As shellfish are a nonquota species, European Union (EU) regulations have had little impact on their day-to-day work.
After decades of change at this bustling port, the impact of Brexit for the fishing folk of the town remains to be seen.
Arbroath’s situation is complex.
Its fishermen are dependent on swift exports of their catches to European markets. Under the EU single market, seafood can be exported from the UK without tariffs or the need for paperwork such as export health and catch certificates. This is expected to change from January 2021.
Out of the EU’S contentious Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the UK would become an “independent coastal state”, and the government is seeking to hold annual talks with the bloc on access for foreign vessels looking to fish in its waters.
However the EU does not want to see the current set-up change.
As it stands, much of the UK’S fishing quota is sold by British skippers to EU boats. Foreign vessels make up in excess of 60% of the tonnage landed from British waters.
Despite the uncertainty, however, the majority of the fishing community in Arbroath is pro-brexit.
Many welcome freedom from the CFP and hope for a new, post-brexit dawn that could allow the smaller boats to diversify their catches.
Chris Pattison, who skippers the Aurora, is one such.
“We are heavily governed by the EU in this industry,” he says.
“Obviously they are going to look at bringing back quotas and stuff like that for the UK so I’d hope that that is going to be getting spread out more evenly.
“I hope that rather than being stuck at one job as I am – which is creel fishing, due to these quotas – that we can start moving on to new jobs like fish, or we can go on to something else within the sector.
“We are very limited in what we can do due to quotas.
“To go to the fish and that with another boat, we’d have to go away and buy masses of quotas, which cost hundreds of thousands to buy.”
Bob Teviotdale, 52, is chairman of the Arbroath and Montrose Static Gear Association and has been fishing from the harbour since the age of 15.
He said: “It is important we get a good trade deal, obviously, with no tariffs or very little tariffs because it is going to have an effect on the stuff that we sell through the EU. The stuff that we catch all gets exported live so any hold-up or blockage or problems at the border would pose a problem.
“If they can trade with the EU as close to where we were before, I think Brexit itself will maybe not make a massive difference in this area.
“The whitefish sector has been over the moon with Brexit and is very optimistic with the future of our fisheries.”
Auchmithie man John Cargill works from Arbroath Harbour with his son, John Jnr. He started in the industry in 1982, aged 16, on the whitefish boats.
The 53-year-old said his vote for Brexit was “nothing to do” with his work as a shellfish specialist in Angus and he “couldn’t understand” why the UK chose to join the EU.
“Now we’ve got the opportunity, I think it’s better for him [son John Jnr] and the future if you’ve got your own destiny,” explained John.
“That’s my opinion and you’ll find that with most coastal communities right around the country.”
He is also confident of a solution to the issue of transporting live shellfish across the border post-brexit.
“If they can sell live crabs into China no problem, how is there going to be an issue selling them to Spain and France?” he insisted.
“I can’t see how there would be a problem.”
However, Danny Smith, who works three boats from Arbroath with his sons Colin and Jonathan, said: “I can see us not getting our stuff across to France.
“I would say maybe 90%, maybe 100% of our stuff goes to Spain and France.
“I did [vote for Brexit] because I think in the long run – it will maybe take a good while – if we do get our fishing back, it will make a big difference.
“Being able to make our own rules – and if it is getting over-fished then to cut back ourselves – I think will be a good thing.”
Fish merchant Martin Spink runs Arbroath’s M&M Spink, which specialises in Arbroath smokies but also supplies locally caught products.
Though he did not vote to leave the European Union, he said that a decent post-brexit deal for fishermen could be good for the Angus town.
“Maybe in the future you could get a couple of trawlers and that back,” he suggested.
“We’ll just see what happens. It is all in the hands of the politicians.
“There are big landings of haddocks just now and all kinds of fish. They obviously think there is a good future in it as long as you get a good deal out of this Brexit.”
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We are heavily governed by the EU in this industry. We are very limited in what we can do due to quotas