Fishermen need to be ‘more organised’ in response to challenges
Fishermen were told they need to become ‘more organised’ if they want to increase their influence with government.
Economic Development president Neil Inder told the States that he had heard little from the fishing industry over the past four years.
‘I have never had any of them through my door,’ he said.
‘Until they do that, I simply can’t guess my way through the problems. The problems are significant, but the fishing association doesn’t appear to be organised enough to walk through my door and have that conservation.’
He was answering questions from Marc Leadbeater, who said the island’s fishing industry had gone from ‘a once vibrant, profitable area of our economy, to being on its knees’, and wanted to know whether Economic Development would consider financially supporting fishermen along similar lines to assistance paid to farmers.
Earlier this week, Environment & Infrastructure published proposals to increase States’ funding of dairy farmers by £1.3m. a year.
‘Quite clearly there is some support there for the farming industry because they seem a bit more organised,’ said Deputy Inder.
Listen: Tony Curr and Matt Fallaize round up Wednesday’s debate on our Shorthand States podcast
Deputy Leadbeater also wanted to know the status of negotiations about Guernsey joining an international convention on the conservation of tuna, which he believed could help diversify the local fishing industry.
Deputy Inder said the issue remained with the UK government. He had received no updates in recent months, but he pledged to look into the details to try to obtain a timeline for progress.
In a separate set of questions, Deputy Leadbeater tried to draw answers on the possibility of fishing subsidies from Environment & Infrastructure president Lindsay de Sausmarez. She said she would be happy to be involved in talks on the issue but they would have to be led by Economic Development, which has responsibility for the industry.
She also faced questions about the increasing presence of octopus in local waters, a rising concern with the damage they cause to shellfish catches.
‘Due to the dexterity of an octopus, there are not many mitigations available to the shell fishermen to prevent octopus entering their pots,’ said Deputy de Sausmarez.
‘As this appears to be part of a cyclical population event, there is nothing substantive that the committee can do to restore a balance between octopus and shellfish, and certainly not at a reasonable cost.’
She told the States that octopus was not considered a non-native invasive species and therefore was not subject to legal controls – which would be difficult to maintain in any case.
Her committee and officials had spoken to a number of fishermen who had reported that the problem was worse in some areas than others.
‘Fishermen are resilient and used to operating in a dynamic environment,’ she said.
‘A number of operators are trying to develop markets for octopus and there may be opportunities arising with increased freight links to France in 2025.’
The impact of octopus has been so great that only one locally-licensed fishing boat longer than 12m is currently working local waters, and the number of smaller licensed vessels has fallen by more than a third in the past 15 years.
There was much amusement in the States when Deputy John Gollop asked whether other fish could be relocated to lessen the impact of octopus.
‘I love the suggestion but I’m not sure it’s very practical,’ said Deputy de Sausmarez.
She added that her committee had taken experts’ advice on the issue just this week, but had received no new ideas about how to lessen the presence or effect of octopus locally.
