DANISH FURY OVER UK SANDEEL FISHING BAN

Danish fury over UK sandeel fishing ban. Danish fishermen are furious that they will be denied access to UK waters to fish for sandeels, following the design of both the UK and Scottish Government to impose a prohibition.

A joint statement from three Danish fishing industry groups said:

“When the EU and the UK agreed on the terms of Brexit, it was a crucial element that EU fishermen could continue to fish in British waters.

“An element that EU fishermen paid dearly to get Britain to agree to.

“Britain is now reneging on that agreement and will ban fishing for sandeel on the British part of Dogger Bank from 26 March this year.

“Britain is implementing the closure on the grounds of wanting to protect bird life. However, there is no scientific evidence that the closure will have the desired effect.

“The decision arouses indignation in the fishing industry, which points out that it is a major and fundamental problem if Britain can run away from the Brexit agreement without consequences.”

Svend-Erik Andersen, chairman of the Danish Fishermen’s Association said:

“This is a humiliation of the EU. With the Brexit agreement, Danish fishermen paid dearly for access to British waters. Now Britain is running away from the deal. That is beneath all criticism. That is why this matter must be raised at the very highest level. Because it cannot be right that Britain should just be allowed to renege on the agreements it makes with the EU. Not at all when there is no scientific evidence.

Every year, approximately 100,000 tonnes of sandeel with a value of more than DKK 300 million are landed in Denmark from the area in question.

Jens Schneider Rasmussen, chairman of the Danish Pelagic Producers’ Organisation said that the government must fight to the last drop of blood.

“The closure will have major negative economic consequences for Danish fisheries. And Brexit has already hit us hard. We simply cannot be served by that. We therefore call on the government’s top ministers to make contact with the UK and the EU. Every stone must be left unturned, and we must fight to the end.”

It is not only fisheries that are affected by the closure. It will also have consequences for fish oil and the fishmeal industry.

The landings of sandeel from the British area in particular have formed the basis for Danish exports of fish oil and fishmeal totalling DKK 2.7 billion since 2015.

“It is serious if the EU and EU leaders let Britain renege on their deal. This is a very critical situation. These are significant values for Denmark and it is our firm belief that this is a breach of the wording of the agreement that reciprocal access to fishing in the waters of the parties is to be granted. The legal implications of the UK decision should be thoroughly investigated and the possibilities for legal action clarified, says Anne Mette Bæk, Director of Marine Ingredients Denmark.

According to the Danish fishing groups, DTU Aqua has carried out an evaluation of the sandeel fishery and concluded that there are no lasting negative effects of the sandeel fishery in the marine environment, just as DTU Aqua concludes that the size of the sandeel stock does not affect other fish stocks, the population of marine mammals and the population of seabirds.

The fishing groups stated:

“The UK and the EU recently jointly asked the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to assess the importance of the sandeel population as a food base for seabirds, among other things. ICES responded to this task in November 2023 by stating that the biological advice for sandeel is ecosystem-based, thus taking into account that sandeel also forms part of the food base for seabirds and other predators. It is therefore surprising that the results of this report are being ignored.”