Fishing industry has been hung out to dry
SPEAKING as a fervent Brexiteer, I feel that those involved in the Brexit negotiations lacked a certain foresight with regard our fishing industry and it has been hung out to dry for the sake of securing a Brexit deal.
Not even a 12-mile limit around our shores was demanded, which would have given them some protection from the European factory ships operating off our shores.
However, what has NOT caught the British public’s attention is the Westcountry’s glass eels fishery, or elver industry as it is probably better known. When we were in the EU we were party to the EU export ban on all eels and elvers outside the
EU. This did not stop, and has NOT stopped the lucrative illegal export of elvers to the Far East by criminal gangs via Eastern Europe, said to be worth some £75 million a year.
Now we have left the EU you’d think we would no longer be bound by this export ban and that for the British Government common sense would emerge and that this predominantly based Westcountry ‘industry’ could be run in a way that benefits the elvers, the eels, the environment, the fishermen and the economy.
Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland has always depended on the Westcountry elver industry to stock the lake for future adult eels, which they in turn re-export to Britain.
Not anymore. Their eel stocks will never be replenished and in turn that industry will also die out. I understand a very generous proposal was made to Defra from the Severn Elver Fishery to donate 60% of their catch free of charge for restocking the rivers and lakes in the UK if an export licence was issued for the remaining 40%.
This would have resulted in a great benefit to the eels and the natural environment through sustainable conservation, a fair deal for the fishery, millions of pounds in exports and a boost for the local economy! How could anyone in their right mind turn this offer down?
Yes, you guessed it, Defra! Just what sort of idiots are running this (dis)organisation? Without this idea coming to fruition, this wellestablished Westcountry industry, which has been here for generations, is doomed to be lost forever, followed by the eels that so many conservationists would be more than just devastated to lose in the not too distant future.
As every good environmentalist or conservationist should know, eels do not breed in European waters. Like the pandas in China and certain other species, they need a helping hand to ensure their survival. Time for a justified government U-turn on this one before it’s too late... and they don’t even have to get the EU’s permission.
Edward Kynaston Lydney, Glos