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Commercial Fishing

NFFO CHIEF EXECUTIVE SLAMS THE WAY FISHING INDUSTRY IS MISREPRESENTED

NFFO chief executive slams the way fishing industry is misrepresented

NFFO chief executive slams the way fishing industry is misrepresented

Barrie Deas, the chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) has highlighted the degree to which commercial fishing is misrepresented to the public.

Writing in the foreword of the 2023 edition of the NFFO Yearbook and Diary, Mr Deas says that this misrepresentation has ‘become something of an industry in itself’.

He wrote: “It is right and proper that we should be held accountable and be open to fair criticism. But when those criticisms are based on falsehoods and distortions, and when those falsehoods and distortions begin to influence policy decisions and the reputational integrity of our industry, we have to call it out for what it is.

“We have come through a period of lies – a period when what is real has been cynically or recklessly disregarded, or disputed, and where myths and distortions have been taken as gospel. Maybe misinformation is the leitmotif of the age? It certainly has been in evident high politics on both sides of the Atlantic – but routine misinformation has pervaded fishing too. It is part of what we have to deal with on an ongoing basis

“In place of the realities, misinformation, myths, and distortions have prevailed. I think that we are all familiar with what I’m talking about:

  • There is the catastrophe narrative that is peddled each December that flies in the face of the science, whilst claiming to uphold science
  • The bandwagons that are jumped on, creating moral panics and blunt overreactions from government
  • From discards, to carbon emissions, to “supertrawlers”, to “overfishing” to crew welfare, our industry has been subject to misrepresentation and exaggeration
  • There is money to be made (one way or another) out of lurid exaggeration (and that is not, by the way, to deny that there are sometimes real issues to deal with – that would be to swing too far the other way)

“The distortions are often repeated and amplified in the social and mainstream media. The comically wrong headline Only 100 adult cod left in the in the North Sea was only the worst of the genre.

“We have also seen charlatans who have divided the industry and systematically lied for considerable personal gain. Sometimes it’s not lies but a wilful denial of nuance and of complexity – but the result is the same.

“I have to say here that the Government has also been guilty and made promises about fishing and Britain’s departure from the EU that in large part turned out to be hollow. Beware politicians making promises.

“This has all had a corrosive effect on politics – and fishing politics. The time spend correcting the distortions has eaten into time better used working for the industry’s benefit. But this is not a counsel of despair: all is not lost.

“We have seen that lies get found out eventually. People, eventually, see through the charlatans that peddle those lies. The Future of Inshore Fisheries Conference in 2018 was an exercise in myth-busting, as much as it was an inspirational showcase for the wealth of insight and knowledge held by the industry itself.

“Another reason not to despair is the Fisheries Act – and the legal requirement that evidence should be the basis for future fisheries legislation and one of the guiding principles – a hugely important safeguard

“Also, Fisheries Science Partnerships are back – plugging holes in our knowledge and providing an exemplar for cooperation between fishers, scientists and fisheries administers

“Additionally, the shellfish sector has gone from poor cousin to exemplar of what co-management could look like – in the form of the Shellfish Industry Advisory Group – taking the lead in the development of evidence-based fisheries management plans.

“ICES has recently proposed a mechanism to address those occasions when there is divergence between fishermen and scientists on a particular stock assessment. That has to be a positive development and sign of confidence.

“There is a growing recognition across the industry that information is power, and it is critically important to understand that the fate of every part of the fleet will be decided on how well it collects, and presents information on where and how it operates

Remote electronic monitoring, properly applied has an important role to play – not as an enforcement cudgel which is to waste most of its potential – but as a tool available for the industry to use on its own behalf and in its own interest

“Another important development is the new planned Centre for Sustainable Fisheries which will systematically confront the lies and misinformation using robust and transparent science

“Not least, there are good people working in fisheries management, in Defra, in the MMO, in Seafish, in the Mission and in the producer organisations and in local groups, who work steadily and conscientiously to put our fisheries on a sound footing

“In short, there are many, many, positive stories out there that never surface – which is why the NFFO has initiated a project to capture and get those stories heard – in print and in film.”

 

 

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