Brexit In Lowestoft Suffolk
A story for Helsingin Sanomat about Britain’s fishing industry & Brexit in England’s most easterly town Lowestoft in Suffolk.
The story was in fact 2 interwoven stories about the survival of Lowestoft’s Fish Market & the withdrawal from the London Fisheries 1964 Convention, we met up with June Mummery of Lowestoft Market Auctioneers BFP Eastern who own the Market & Paul Lines a Lowestoft Fisherman.
The Fish Market has been trading for more than 100 years and in its heyday the market would be packed with the landings of herring and cod caught in huge numbers. Lowestoft had 134 boats before joining the EU and now has only 12 small boats all under 10 metres.
June Mummery is fighting against the demise of the market due to strict EU fishing quotas and raised docking charges for fishing boats.
Paul Lines has been campaigning all his life for UK fisheries and together with June they recently formed the Lowestoft Fish Market Alliance (LFMA) in an attempt to revitalise the town’s fishing economy and they feel that Brexit is a fantastic opportunity to rebuild the fishing industry.
After Brexit the Government has announced it will withdraw from the London Fisheries Convention that allows foreign countries permission to fish up to six miles from UK shores, they will be banned from fishing to 12 miles from UK shores. Michel Gove, a prominent leave campaigner in the EU referendum, also said that once Britain left the trading bloc, it would be able to extend control of its waters to 200 miles, or to the median line between Britain and France or Britain and Ireland.
Read a story about Brexit & Fishermen in Margate, Kent.
