RAMSGATE, United Kingdom: The fishermen of Ramsgate, a once-thriving seaside town in southern England, had high hopes that Brexit would bring back the pre-EU glory days of teeming catches and lively fish auctions.
Britain had insisted it wanted to take back control of its waters while EU coastal states sought guarantees that their fleets could keep fishing in UK waters.
“We’ve been sold out by Boris!” fumed John Nichols in his Ramsgate cottage overlooking the English Channel, referring to Prime Minister Johnson.
Nichols, president of the Thanet Fishermen’s Association representing around 40 boats, said they were looking forward to a return to the days before frozen rectangles of cod could be imported from far away.
They fought for stricter quotas and stepped-up checks, especially against Dutch “electric pulse fleets”, a method that Nichols said sterilises fish stocks.
Instead, last week London and Brussels reached a compromise that will see European boats gradually relinquish 25 per cent of their current quotas during a five-and-a-half-year transition period.
Nichols, 69, has been fighting for a “hard” Brexit since 2016, the year Britain voted to leave the EU in a referendum, with his group staging “Leave” flotillas on the Thames, sailing under the Houses of Parliament in London.
Now, “foreign vessels will continue to come in and out and take more fish than they did before,” Nichols said.
“The old saying says ‘be careful what you wish for’,” said the doyen of the group, 85-year-old Tom Brown, his cap pulled down to his eyebrows.
Brown said that “when it all started to go wrong” after Britain joined the European Union — then the European Economic Community — in 1973, he and his brother joined every protest, from strikes to blockades, to fight for their rights against European competition.
Brown even created his own modest fuel company, with profits going to fellow fishermen to help offset the losses.
And then, with global warming, the cod population began migrating northwards, and the British began importing their cod for fish and chips — a national staple — from Iceland.
Brown said that people in England no longer eat fresh fish, “only fish and chips”. — AFP
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