I spoke in this morning's debate about our inshore fishing fleet.
At a time when we need to increase the supply of local nutritious food our fishermen are tangled in red tape – rules that do nothing to support sustainability or safety.
Government needs to
• Streamline fishermen’s reporting obligations
• Combine the functions of IFCAs and the MMO
• Introduce common sense and consistency in Safety Code inspections
• Ensure the roll-out of IVMS is affordable and won’t tie up the fleet onshore if the tech fails
• Scrap quotas for the inshore fleet – our most sustainable boats, whose days at sea are limited by weather conditions anyway
• Protect inshore fishing areas from freight vessels off the Lizard Peninsula who cut the corner and wreck the gear!
