The Brexit negotiations are spicing up. Particularly with regards to fishing, there is a problem between Norway, the UK and EU. People say the UK has a pretty bad deal with regards to fishing rights, one of the reason many ex-fishing towns voted Brexit.
The article forgot to mention the large fleet of Scottish (incl, Shetland) fleet of modern Pelagic Seiner/trawlers that operate a lot of the time in Norwegian waters and deliver much of their catch in Norway to Norwegian fish meal plants. Here is an article from SPSG:
PS> Most of these vessels are built in Norway and Denmark, with Norwegian equipment. Fishing vessels are frequently sold between Norway and UK/Ireland.
Many Norwegian Seiner/Trawlers operate part of the year in UK and Irish waters but mostly bring their catch to Norway.
Some of the Norwegian Factory Trawlers operating off Newfoundland, Greenland and in the Barents Sea deliver their catch in UK (Grimsby and Hull)
UK Factory Trawlers operates in Norwegian EEZ, both in the North Sea, Barents Sea and off Jan Mayen and Svalbard.
Will all this be turned on itâs head because some politicians in London âwants to take back Sovereigntyâ? Guess who will be the main losers?
PS> Majority of UK caught seafood is exported to the EU and will be subject to tariffs from 01. Jan. 2021.
Grimsby still holds a daily fish market, however the majority of the product is trucked in from the Continent on overnight ferries. WeirdâŚ
In the media it is hard to find non-biased sources that will accuratly report on who is getting a good deal in terms of fishing right, a lot of the pro-EU woke media in the UK wonât report that the UK is getting a bad deal because they donât want to be seen as jingoistic.
With multinational ownership it is hard to actual know who owns the fishing rights anyway, a company might have owners from Russia but HQ in London then the fishing rights would be registered as being UK owned when theyâre ultimately Russian owned.
It is said that the main reasons that Norway doesnât want to join the EU is that they would have to share their fishing quota.
They say that the UK got a raw deal in terms of quotas because when the set them much of the UK fishing fleet was fishing near Iceland, and they set quotas as per where fishing fleets traditionally fished, a lot of Belgian, Dutch and French fishing boats fished in UK waters. So the UK got kicked out of Iceland and lost many of the rights to fish in UK waters to other European countries.
Also the EU came up with some kind of formula to calculate fishing quotas as per coastline, but they didnât factor in that much of the EU coastline has no fishing grounds, so the countries that actually have fishing grounds got a bad deal because countries with a coastline that have poor fishing grounds were counted equally.
The âMackerel Warsâ was an interesting topic that didnât get much media coverage:
1 Like
No, Norwegians voted against being member of EU because they wanted to control the quotas based on scientific research of sustainable stock. That goes for both Norwegian and foreign fishing vessels.
Annual negotiation with EU, Russia, Island etc. decides how much fish of different species can be caught by who, both in Norwegian waters and in EU, Russian, Icelandic zones.
PS> In the Barents Sea there are two areas of international water, one popularly know as âsmutthavetâ and another known as âsmutthulletâ, where it is free for all to catch fish:
Still within the total quota agree for each species. (At least legally)
1 Like
Wanting to âcontrol the quotasâ is another way of saying not wanting to share quotas with the rest of the EU like the UK has to do.
Norway is NOT a member of EU for that reason.
Since the quota negotiations are between EU and Norway a separate agreement has to be reached with UK to allow UK vessels to fish in Norwegian waters and v.v.
The quota of each species allowed to be caught in each others EEZ will also have to be mutually agreed.
Nobody said it was going to be easy to leave the EU after nearly 5 decades as member. 
PS> Norwegian fishing vessels have an annual quote for different species. Quotas can be sold and brought and sometime is more valuable than the vessel.
Fishing is a complex business. Large vessels may have quotas in many different EEZs and the Fishing Log is subject to frequent scrutiny by Fishery Patrol on the fishing grounds and at delivery ports.
By-catch rules are an added headache, with different limits for different species and in different jurisdictions.
Although fishing is a relatively small party of the UK economy it also has become a big issue.
Here is an interesting documentary from 1976 about The Cod Wars:
Letâs hope we donât get back to that.
The Royal Navy is prepping to protect UK waters as per article linked below.
When the UK fishing fleet got kicked out of Icelandic waters in the 1970s the Icelandics were using minesweepers to cut the fishing nets of UK fishing vessels, I wonder if any minesweepers will be deployed now.
British fishing boat will be blocked from fishing in EU waters as well.
The 200 n.miles EEZ only apply to waters west of Scotland. In the North Sea and Irish Sea the median line applies, which makes for a much smaller range of British EEZ.
So far UK has outsourced negotiation on fishing rights and quota of common fish stock in the North Sea shared with Norway to EU Commission in Brussels.
In Sept. 2020 UK and Norway agreed on a post-Brexit fishing right deal:
But if Britain crash out of the EU without a trade deal, that agreement may fail and a new deal between them have to be negotiated. (As mentioned in OP)
Otherwise it will close the huge and rich Norwegian EEZ to the UK fishing fleet and for Norwegian boat to operate in UK waters. Presumably also the possibility to deliver catch in each others ports.
For the small coastal fishing boats in Norway and UK this will not make much of a difference, but the North Sea fishing fleet on both side that chase the same species in each others waters it MAY be a MAJOR problem.
Fishery is a minor business in the UK, but a major industry in Norway.(3rd). UK being a major market for Norwegian seafood, both wild caught and farmed, the problem may even affect coastal fisheries and aquaculture in the North of Norway.
In the UK it may cause a shortage of Fish nâ Chips, or at least higher prices.
1 Like
Looks like Norway and UK MAY join forces in a âCod Warâ against EU:
Actually they did and they won the elections.
Oh yes I forgot to say; ânobody in their right mind said thatâŚâ
Whoâs the maddest: the one saying it or the ones voting for him?
P.S. donât want to make it political, but I like fish from Norway.
Could that be because it hasnât swirled around in meltwater for a week before being delivered to a auction hall, or being processed and transported to the market?
More than one culprit, I believe??
Yes there is that.
Does that mean there are more mad voters in England than in NI and Scotland (pro rate)??
PS> I have noticed that on BBC News there is a lot of talk about (and reports from) the fisheries and scallop scraping in the English Channel, but nothing about the bigger boats in NE England and Scotland that operates far and wide in the North Sea, North Atlantic and as far north as the Svalbard zone. They bring in the largest shear of fish to British ports and are dependent on access to the fish resources in the Norwegian, Faeroe and EU EEZ.
1 Like
The BBC suffers from Londinitis.
It is âdown to the wireâ in the EU/UK trade negotiations and fisheries is still a stick point:
A âScallops Warâ is brewing in the English Channel: