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Even before the sun rose, the harbor side of Brixham, which bills itself as the birthplace of the trawling industry, was lively.
Fishermen, market workers, and merchants were busy with their morning chores, landing, preparing and auctioning gleaming sets of sole, monkfish and scallops.
But deep down, thoughts about the Brexit negotiations taking place hundreds of miles away in London and Brussels were hovering.
“I wish they’d get in and fix it,” Dave Brown said as he unloaded a catch of sea bass from his ship, The Thankful. “This could be a really significant time for our industry. We want to recover our waters and our quotas ”.
Brown has worked from this famous Devon port for 40 years. He does not believe that continental European fishermen should be completely banned from British waters. “There has to be some compromise, but it’s not fair at the moment.” Are you optimistic that a favorable deal will be reached? “Not much, to be honest.”
In reality, there was very little optimism in the port. The most common responses, accompanied by a variety of colorful expletives, were variations of: “They’ll sell us downstream again” or “They’ll cheat us, we always are.”
The mood in Brixham does not improve with a tragedy. Local man Adam Harper, 26, was one of two fishermen who died when the boat Joanna C sank three miles out to sea last month.
“That’s a reminder of the human cost of fishing,” said James Walsh, who manages the Rockfish fish shop in the harbor.
“I would like to see a fairer treatment for the fisherman. We should have a better part of our waters. We are happy to share, but the division should favor us more than them. For the moment they [boats from mainland Europe] they have freedom of movement and are taking money out of British pockets. “
Brixham has been a fishing port since the Middle Ages and in the 18th century it pioneered the use of sail trawlers, fast, powerful and robust vessels that targeted demersal fish: cod, sole, plaice, haddock.
In recent decades the industry has contracted and the seafood sector, which includes fishing, aquaculture and processing, accounts for just 0.1% of the UK economy.
But in places like South Devon it is still of enormous importance and Brixham is the largest market in England by value of fish sold. This fall the port enjoyed a weeklong streak of one million pounds, with sales of cuttlefish, scallops and more than 40 types of fish regularly reaching seven figures.
Mike Sharp, owner of two Brixham beam trawlers, said this was the simple reason why the French and other nations were so keen on maintaining excellent access to British waters.
“From Dover to the Isle of Scilly, we have the best fish in the world,” Sharp said. “This is why the French are pitching so much.”
“We want what I think Boris is trying to achieve: total sovereignty over our waters. Once we have that, we can have an annual agreement to decide who can enter and exchange it with the French to access their waters. “
Sharp, who participated in the pro-Brexit flotilla protest on the Thames in London during the EU referendum campaign, said he is not concerned about the prospect of a deal. “I don’t care if it breaks. I don’t think that’s bad for fishing. “
But compromises, such as a transition period or the removal of some fish, for example pelagic species such as herring and tuna, have been floated out of the negotiations.
Barrie Deas, executive director of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations, the body that represents fishermen in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the industry was opposed to a transition period which has been discussed with revisions at the end of three, five, seven. or 10 years.
“Justice deferred is justice denied,” he said. “The industry feels that it has been in a relationship with the EU that has consistently worked to its disadvantage for 40 years, so there really isn’t a great deal of sympathy or appetite for extending something that appears to be linked to the Common Fisheries Policy.”
Deas added that the industry will seek to see the details of the quota agreements and that reports that the EU had offered to return up to 18% of the fish caught in British waters was “pointless” as there were shared quotas for 140 different fish. species.
“Behind every action, there is a story, behind each quota, there is a story, there is a community,” he said.
However, a crucial factor haunting Brixham is that the EU is its biggest customer, with over 70% of its catch exported to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.
Trevor Sclater, the skipper of Brixham’s newest and greatest rod trawler Georgina de Ladram, is a rare beast – an anti-Brexit fisherman willing to talk about it.
“I have been against Brexit from the beginning,” he said. “I think what we are doing is disgusting.”
Sclater is for equality. “It should be a level playing field. If we have to stay outside the 12 French mile limit, they should stay outside ours. But, he argues, the industry performed well before Brexit. “We fish, we make a living. Why fix something that is not broken? “
He fears that if continental European vessels are banned from fishing off British shores, countries like France will stop accepting fish caught by UK vessels.
“I see that on January 2 we will not be able to sell our fish. We should not put gateways between ourselves and our closest neighbors. That’s crazy “.
