The AIFCA working with a range of partners has delivered two regional workshop which have sought to understand and identify plausible solutions to address the decline in the UK inshore and small-scale fishing fleet.
Whilst the fishing industry as a whole is in decline, recent data show that in England the decline is particularly evident in the under 10m sector, who can experience challenges in ways that are currently poorly understood. These workshops seek to create a platform to share knowledge and document the multiple challenges facing the inshore fishing fleet, across the country, and distil fisher-led ideas about priority actions that could help stem the loss of boats. The two workshops, one in Poole (in late September) and the other in Whitby aimed to provide engagement with the English fleet.
The workshops brought together fishers who predominantly fish inshore, representatives from fisher organisations, fisheries managers, NGOs, academics, and policy makers, all of whom share concern about the ongoing loss of boats from our fishing fleet and the subsequent erosion of national benefits and heritage that fishing communities provide.
There will be a set of recommendations to feed into ongoing policy discussions, heightening visibility of the particular needs of the inshore and small-scale fishing sectors. Whilst these first workshops are focussed on the under 10m boats, we envision that outputs will be useful for the wider fleet and could lead to future workshops addressing the decline more generally and in other parts of the UK.
