Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-01-18-Speech-1-089-000"
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"en.20160118.15.1-089-000"2
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"Madam President, well tonight we are talking about the disastrous level of bluefin tuna stocks, quotas and commercial fishing methods.
Not one person in this room has mentioned angling, and I think our whole approach to fisheries simply is wrong. We have a quota system for most of our species, which of course in mixed fisheries has meant decades of discards on a truly horrendous scale. And whilst I, and everybody else, want a proper, sustainable commercial sector, we are massively underestimating the power of recreational sea angling to bring good – not just economically, but also the environmental benefit of our stocks not being hammered in the same way.
In the United Kingdom, just anglers targeting bass alone bring in GBP 200 million a year to the UK economy – far more than the level of commercial landings. In America they have got this right. They recognised on the East Coast that the striped bass was an asset. After a complete moratorium they now regard that stock as primarily an angling resource which has led to a massive boom in jobs and boatbuilding and all those East Coast coastal communities benefiting massively.
But what have we done with our declining bass stock? We put a total ban in place for anglers, with after 1 July a derisory one fish limit per angler, whilst at the same time allowing the small commercial boats to use gillnets to catch 1.3 tonnes per month each. What we have done is wholly disproportionate, and frankly we are punishing anglers who did not cause the problem.
And we did it, Commissioner, through a regulation that you, a Maltese bureaucrat, proposed, that was nodded through the Council of Ministers, that was not debated in the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries, not debated or voted on here, certainly not debated on in the British Parliament, and that will turn now ordinary people into criminals if they pursue their Magna Carta rights.
And I hope that all 800 000 UK sea anglers say ‘damn the European Commission’ and vote for us to get back control and management of our own waters."@en1
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