Fishing smarter is the way forward for industry

by Steffan Rhys, Western Mail

It is no longer recognisable from its thriving post-war years, but Steffan Rhys finds the fishing industry in Wales looking optimistically to the future

IT is a popular saying, often adapted for ports around the country, that you could once walk across the harbour in Milford Haven without getting your feet wet, such was the density of its fishing boats.

Up to 150 trawlers operated from the port in the postwar years, exploring the seas hundreds of miles south of Ireland, north of Scotland and as far away as Iceland.

Those days are long gone, dealt a fatal blow by accession to the European Union, where the shipping behemoths of the Belgians, Spanish and French now dominate the large-scale fishing industry, leaving the Pembrokeshire port with just two large trawlers.

But despite the decline, Wales’ fishermen are positive about their current situation and their future.

They have not been concerned with large-scale fishing for decades and now have around 460 smaller vessels concentrating on inshore fishing – done within 12 miles of the shore – where they have an abundance of shellfish unhindered by the quotas which restrict the numbers of fish the larger, offshore vessels can catch.

The Welsh sea fishing boats, the vast majority of which are under 10 metres long, are mostly potters, fishing for lobster, crab, prawns, and to a lesser extent, whitefish and whelk.

There is also a small rod fishing industry for desirable fish like bass.

“In broad summary, the inshore sector is relatively buoyant,” says Dr Stephen Atkins, chief executive of the North Western and North Wales Sea Fisheries Committee.

“The shellfish sector is buoyant and mussel growth is particularly strong in the Menai Strait. Lobster fishing is doing well and so is scallop fishing, though there are environmental concerns as to its impact.

“Larger scale offshore fishing is in serious decline. And this is what you hear about, not the inshore fishermen who are jogging along nicely and supporting local communities.”

The figures do not make positive reading. The Marine and Fisheries Agency says that there were 8,400 registered vessels and 18,600 fishermen in the UK in 1997.

By 2006, this had declined by 32% to 6,750 vessels and 12,930 fishermen, with 1,150 of these in Wales. Landings by UK vessels in 1997 amounted to 568,000 tonnes worth £468m. This had fallen to 401,000 tonnes worth £494m by 2006.

Raymond Harding, of the Milford Haven Maritime Museum, began fishing the port in 1947.

“Compared to the 1950s, there is no fishing industry in Wales now,” he said.

“There were roughly 130 trawlers based in the port then. Some would follow the herring season around the country, they would fish hake 300 miles off the coast of Ireland in incredibly heavy swells under black skies.”

But there are several reasons to be positive about the Welsh fishing industry, worth around £200m and 3,000 direct and indirect jobs to the nation’s economy.

For the first time, Wales has its own sea fishing strategy overseen by different fishermen’s associations – one in the North, one in the South, and one for all of Wales – who have been able to develop projects whilst drawing funding from Europe.

From April 1, the Welsh Assembly Government takes over responsibility for its own fisheries enforcement from the Marine and Fisheries Agency, a development warmly welcomed by the Welsh Federation Fishermen’s Association.

While still bound by obligations to the European Commission on issues like transport checks and the landings of visiting trawlers, the new WAG fisheries policy will focus on the needs of both the Welsh fishing fleet and Welsh aquaculture – the commercial rearing of fish in a sustainable way – industry.

It’s a significantly different outlook to that of 2003, when the South and West Wales Fishing Communities accused Defra of all but ignoring the Welsh inshore fishing industry in its policy negotiations with the EU.

Another reason to be positive is the imminent European funding, which has lagged way behind that given to Welsh agriculture, despite the two industries facing many of the same broad problems.

“We will soon have proper official bodies that reflect the industry in Wales at all levels,” says Jerry Percy, chief executive of the Welsh Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

“It’s getting together the people who have direct relevance and experience in particular geographical areas, giving them the scientific information, and asking them what they want to do.

“It is a bottom-up approach which would feed through to management level. It is worth pointing out that WAG could not have been more helpful in this respect. They fully support it.

“Our main aim is the production of a long term sustainable development plan for Welsh fishing which has to take into account our environmental responsibilities as well as the sustainable issues relating to fish stocks.”

According to Mr Percy, a key way to allow Welsh fishermen to catch more fish without damaging stocks is to diversify.

But before that can be done, there has to be an infrastructure in place on land to support any new products.

“There is massive scope for diversification in Welsh waters,” says Mr Percy. “There are a range of species we haven’t focused on yet but we could. But the more species we focus on, the less pressure on any particular one. Examples are squid, mackerel, bass and sprats.

“Sprats are a very good source of Omega 3 and we’ve got huge quantities in our waters that we’ve never looked at – a million tonnes in the Irish Sea.

“It’s a win-win situation in terms of fishing and health. If you can catch it in Welsh waters to go to Welsh homes and schools, what’s better than that?

“But, of course, you bring 10 tonnes of sprats ashore and you’ve got to have the system to land them, transport them, add value to them. That is not in place.

“We’ve nothing that allows fishermen to hold shellfish and sell it to the UK market and we need a wider view of market opportunities. The potential benefits to Wales, the rural economy and the country’s health should not be underestimated.

“And as transport costs increase and we get more problems with fuel supply we are going to need to start looking closer to home.”

This lack of infrastructure means most of what is caught in Wales is placed in a Spanish or French lorry and taken back to the continent. Some lorries make the journey from Spain to the northern tip of Scotland once a week.

In the meantime, supermarket giants are importing lobster and other shellfish, which are abundant in Welsh waters, from places like Canada and Maine.

And with high-street fishmongers not as common as they once were, most of us are limited to the supply of fresh fish found at the supermarkets. When I was a kid the fishermen would often catch to order for a particular hotel but the French market opened up post-war, and then the Spanish market, and they now take the catch,” says Robbie Gorman, who has fished from Aberystwyth Harbour for 41 years.

“The amount of lobster imported into this country and exported from it is roughly the same – 140 tonnes.

“It’s nonsensical and it needs sorting out but restaurants in Aberystwyth wouldn’t support even one boat and we can’t drive a lorry to Cardiff all night having been out on a boat all day.

“The habit of the British shopper is to go to the supermarket where food is ready to eat. People in Britain won’t hold a spider crab and deshell it but those in Spain or France will. It will take a huge change of culture for the vast majority of Brits to spend their time deshelling seafood.”

Another difficulty for fishermen is that their product fetches the same now as it did five years ago, meaning more equipment and more time spent at sea if rising costs elsewhere are to be offset.

The price per tonne of landed seafood in 1997 was £1,129, a figure which barely changed until 2005, when it rose to £1,476 per tonne, followed by another rise to £1,778 per tonne in 2006.

“All my catch goes to Spain at around £5 a pound. So with lobsters weighing 1lb to 1.5lbs, what we get for it is around the same as a McDonalds Happy Meal,” says Mr Gorman. “The price of fish hasn’t gone up in around 20 years. Back then, if you caught 20 kilos it would be a good day’s work for two men but now it will barely cover costs.”

Mr Percy believes “fishing smarter” and adding value to the catch – for example, by targeting a local market or attractively packaging fish to sell – is a way to broaden fishermen’s profit margins. And while the industry is looking forward, it is battling some seemingly difficult odds.

The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, which sets its member states’ quotas, does not distinguish between the huge European trawlers and the under-10 metre vessels operating in Welsh waters, leaving them struggling to get a fair share of that quota.

“So while we may seek to positively affect fishery management in Welsh waters we are not allowed to affect other European vessels that, in my opinion, do not fish sustainably,” says Mr Percy.

There is the well documented problem of not being allowed to land the fish caught, which leads to the unfathomably wasteful process of throwing dead fish back overboard, though this has limited impact on inshore fishermen.

There is also the constant battle against the more ardent environmentalists who continue to pressure for more restrictive quotas.

But having adapted since the 1970s, when Welsh and UK fishermen sold their quotas and their vessels to their European counterparts as it became more and more difficult to make a living, Wales’ fishermen now believe that inshore fishing has a solid future.

“The overall number of vessels has remained roughly the same in the 20 years I’ve been here,” says Phil Coates, of the South Wales Sea Fisheries Committee, which oversees vessels leaving harbours such as Porthcawl and Swansea.

“But there has been a change in the type of fishing. Trawlers from Milford Haven and Swansea have gone down because they look for fin fish [like cod] but they could convert to different types of fishing or become multi-functional, setting nets in summer and pots in winter.

“Inshore fishing is quite buoyant. It could always be better but the fishermen support more boats and more value in a steadier situation.”

Mr Percy agrees, “Whilst there are always significant problems, there are also many aspects of the Welsh fishing industry that are extremely positive,” he says.

“We do not want huge trawlers coming in and scooping up thousands of tonnes. We need to do it on a smaller scale, which we are good at. There is cause to be optimistic about the future. For the first time the industry is moving together towards an identifiable goal.

“Only by unified and co-operative action will we reap the benefits and counter the threats.

“We can still provide Wales with a decent service as an industry if we focus on the smaller vessels, which is no bad thing.

“There has been a significant decline in the overall size and shape of the fleet, the numbers of trawlers have certainly declined because they’ve been unable to make ends meet and we’ve lost shellfish boats because of poor pricing and high transport costs.

“But our fleet is still numerous. It’s just spread across the coast now bringing employment and economic benefits to a much wider area than was the case.

“It also impacts tourism. When a fishing boat comes into land in our harbours there will be a host of tourists there to watch it – it’s a beautiful sight and part of the holiday experience.

“In some cases, the fishing industry’s health is poorly, in some places it’s healthy and in others it has the potential to be really strong.”

Fishery policy goals

Some of the key goals of the imminent Welsh Assembly Government fisheries policy identified by Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones in December

Healthy Fish Stocks

The development and management of fisheries at sustainable levels as a part of a healthy and productive ecosystem.

Positive community role

The recognition of fisheries as a positive contribution to the communities in Wales

Environment

Fisheries developed and managed in a sustainable way contributing positively to the environmental policies of Wales

Partnership Working

To further the partnership already established between policymakers and those in the industry

Economic contribution

Maximising the economic importance and contribution of fisheries to the development of the “Wales” brand on a Wales/UK/EU/international level.

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