Fishing treaty is being wound up

THE Government is withdrawing the UK from an arrangement that allows foreign countries to fish in British waters, it has announced.

Ministers will trigger withdrawal from the London Fisheries Convention, signed in 1964 before the UK joined the European Union, to start the two-year process to leave the agreement.

The convention allows vessels from France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands to fish within six and 12 nautical miles of the UK’s coastline.

It sits alongside the EU Common Fisheries Policy, which allows all European countries access between 12 and 200 nautical miles of the UK and sets quotas for how much fish nations can catch.

Ministers claimed the move would help take back control of fishing access to UK waters, as it will no longer be bound by existing access agreements, and enable the country to become fully responsible for fisheries management. UK vessels will also lose the right to fish in the waters six to 12 nautical miles offshore of the other countries.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said: “Leaving the London Fisheries Convention is an important moment as we take back control of our fishing policy. It means for the first time in more than 50 years we will be able to decide who can access our waters.”

The UK fishing industry was made up of more than 6,000 vessels in 2015, landing 708,000 tonnes of fish worth £775m.

Will McCallum, Greenpeace UK head of oceans, warned the move alone would not deliver a better future for the UK fishing industry.