Fishing limits - 20-year-old issue could be resolved today
In the first of a series of online-only articles looking into the background of major stories, Guernsey Press deputy news editor Joel de Woolfson delves into the ongoing saga of the island's fishing limits.
In the first of a series of online-only articles looking into the background of major stories, Guernsey Press deputy news editor Joel de Woolfson delves into the ongoing saga of the island's fishing limits.
GUERNSEY'S lack of power when it comes to who fishes between three-to-12 miles off its coast has been an emotive subject for almost 20 years.
But the highly charged issue should reach a resolution today as deputies look set to approve the Commerce and Employment report – and an accompanying Projet de Loi – that will leave Guernsey, Alderney and Sark with the power to decide which non-local fishermen get to share our stocks.
All three islands have for many years been in control of their waters within a three-mile limit of their shores. They each police and grant fishing licences within the limit.
But from about 1993 onwards the three islands wanted this control extended out to 12 miles. The local industry was becoming more and more anxious with big trawlers working a little more than three miles off the coast and there were real concerns about the sustainability of our stocks.
The UK 'owned' control of the outer limits but agreed in 2003 that the islands could have the power they craved, as long as Guernsey and Jersey came to an agreement that allowed a certain number of boats to fish in the other's waters.
No agreement was reached and in October 2003 the States agreed to bring in an ordinance that would allow the licensing.
Guernsey's Sea Fisheries Committee had been advised that the move was lawful but a legal challenge from the Jersey Fishermen's Association and several UK fishing companies, who had been refused a licence, raged for several years before Guernsey eventually lost a final appeal.
The Privy Council ruled the island did not have the power to make any laws outside of its three-mile limit.
The UK fishing companies were eventually paid compensation last year, although the Policy Council has refused to say how much.
Sea Fisheries again, in July 2007, approached the UK to seek a solution. The Ministry of Justice agreed to extend the islands' territorial waters to 12 miles – matching the benefits enjoyed by both Jersey and the Isle of Man.
But there was another catch, the MOJ said Guernsey, Sark and Alderney had to agree on a Fisheries Management Agreement, which would detail how they would control the extended territorial waters.
That agreement was eventually reached in November last year, after several years of negotiation.
Deputies will now have the final say locally on whether they back the end product.
