Postponing the Brexit fisheries management problem!

March 26, 2018

We hinted at two weeks ago that there would be a trade-off between the access to the UK waters and the outcome of the Brexit negotiations with the EU. Now it seems that there is at least a temporary trade-off with the fisheries management in UK waters to be unchanged during the transition period till the end of 2020. The question is then what are the UK options for fisheries management post 2020 and what are the likely effects for the future fisheries? The area marked in red on the map below shows the UK waters.

UK waters shared with the EU until end of 2020

In recent days there have been several heated comments about the latest draft agreement between the UK government and Brussels. Comments such as “The perception is we have been hijacked” and “We have been lied to” are just examples from the UK fishermen over the transition fisheries management. Yet such comments do not shed any lights on the uncertainty about the future fisheries management. However, what we can speculate on is what would the likely impact be on the UK fishing industry should a similar quota system be introduced in the UK as is the case in the Icelandic fisheries management system.

The key findings from a research paper titled: "Consolidation and distribution of quota holdings in the Icelandic fisheries", published in 2016 by S. Agnarsson, T. Matthiasson, and F. Girya, indicate that the distribution of quotas between firms has become more unequal, and there is also clear evidence of increasing transfers between harbours, especially in the case of the quota shares of hook-and-line boats. The results also indicate that spatial concentration has been much less than consolidation at firm level during the period under consideration. This would indicate that firms have mostly grown in size by merging with local firms or buying out smaller local operators. The following figure shows the quota consolidation among harvesting companies operating vessels with regular quotas and hook-and-line quotas. Time t in the figure refers to the year when the quota system was introduced. Thus, in the case of vessels with regular quotas, t corresponds to the 1990/1991 fishing year, while in the case of vessels with hook-and-line quotas, t refers to the 2001/2002 fishing year.

Quota consolidation among harvesting companies operating vessels with regular quotas and hook-and-line quotas

Should we then expect similar consolidation in the UK post 2020 and if that will be the case then how will this then affect the fishing companies? At this time it is not possible to answer this question but we may seek out answers to how Icelandic small-scale fisheries have perceived the results thirty years after the introduction of the current quota system in Iceland. Another research paper titled: "Thirty years after privatization: A survey of Icelandic small-boat fishermen", published in 2017 by Catherine Chambers and Courtney Carothers, looked at the views on the current fisheries management system.

Survey responses to the multiple choice question: “What is the best management scheme for Icelandic small-boat fisheries?”

In short the small-scale fishermen in Iceland perceive that the quota system has focused on capital accumulation over resource protection, dissatisfaction is with the decision-making process and the governance system. Given that these are the views and effects of the fisheries management system in Iceland it unlikely that the the UK fishermen in the small-scale fisheries will accept such a system without voicing their opposition. Will we then again read the same comments as above in two years time or will the politicians management to address the issues in such a way to build a general consensus on the future fisheries management in the UK. This is the main political challenge ahead.

To find out more about the fisheries management and quota utilisation follow our analysis on seadatacenter.com. Please contact us at info@seadatacenter.com for more information.