Remember how our fishermen were thrown overboard when we left the EU?

After decades of being filleted by the EU, they’re now fighting back

A special report, introducing a major campaign to restore our fishing industry and coastal communities

This is a story of the seas – British seas. A story of a once-proud, island maritime nation, surrounded by water on all sides. It is a story of those who risk their lives daily in an often inhospitable environment, putting to sea to bring us all back some of the most nutritious food that can appear on our plates.

It is also, sadly, a story of how these brave men and women saw their industry, their livelihoods, and their coastal communities tossed overboard in the final negotiations between the EU and UK governments, and how they saw firm and unequivocal promises being cruelly broken.

The UKFC – For a sea-change in the fortunes of our fishermen and our coastal communities

A major piece of ‘old school’ investigative journalism

For weeks, our team has been working with fisheries groups, amassing all the facts and figures on the state of play in British waters. In addition, we have been investigating the practices and behaviours by non-UK owned vessels which UK fishermen have been seeing on a regular basis. Finally, we have been looking at the response of the UK authorities to the repeated claims and warnings of our fishermen.

We very soon reached a stark conclusion : Not only were our fishermen treated shabbily thanks to the UK’s membership of the EU and the set-up of its ‘Common Fisheries Policy’ (CFP) in 1983, they have also been sold down the river ever since the UK left the EU.

How the UK’s fishing industry was filleted by the EU

The decimation of the British fishing fleet in the last 30 years

• In the last 30 years, UK has lost an average of 209 boats per year from the fleet
• That’s an average of four boats per week, gone
• In some years, as many as 20 boats per week were mothballed or scrapped
• In all, the UK’s fishing fleet has more than halved in 30 years

All of this has happened under
the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2025 – click to enlarge

How did all this happen? It’s called the EU’s “Common Fisheries Policy”

Here are some examples of the EU’s “take” of British fish, according to figures from the EU Commission and DEFRA. Of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) in the southern North Sea, the EU receives:

• 93% of sole, catching 62% in British waters, or 7,750 tonnes
• 88% of horse mackerel, catching 76% in British waters, or 9,576 tonnes
• 91% of herring, catching 81% in British waters, or 221,000 tonnes

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The UKFC – For a sea-change in the fortunes of our fishermen and our coastal communities

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The history cannot simply be washed away

The summary above shows just one aspect of how the UK’s fishing and coastal communities were affected by years of EU membership. We can’t simply wash that history away, but perhaps we can start to put things right for the future.

For readers who have only joined us more recently, we should say we are not ‘Johnny-Come-Lately’s’ to this totemic issue. Over the last 10 years Facts4EU published a great many detailed reports in the lead up to the negotiations, during them, and afterwards when the full scale of the sell-out became clear. We published rather more than any other (non-specialist) pro-Brexit organisation, in fact. Now it’s time for us to take up the fight once more.

Before we launch our new series of reports on this, however, it’s worth looking back to what our fishermen were promised in the final months of the Brexit negotiations.

So what’s next?

Today’s report is a scene-setter for what is to come. In the coming days and weeks we will be revealing the full extent of what is currently going on, in a series of reports. We have photographic evidence and are seeking more. We have eyewitness testimony and want to get more. And we will have some very difficult questions for the authorities – in the UK as well as in the EU – to answer.

We also hope to secure more political support, after already receiving the backing of one former Cabinet Minister. (To any politicians reading this, please contact us now.) Finally, we have been in discussions with GB News, who have indicated that they would be interested in running these stories.

Please support our work today

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Main image: Montage © Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2025