{"id":4976,"date":"2013-02-06T10:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T10:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldfishing.nfdtesting.uk\/icefish-conference\/2013\/02\/06\/nffo-names-10-flaws-in-greenpeace-research\/"},"modified":"2013-02-06T10:36:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T10:36:00","slug":"nffo-names-10-flaws-in-greenpeace-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/news\/industry-news\/nffo-names-10-flaws-in-greenpeace-research\/","title":{"rendered":"NFFO names 10 flaws in Greenpeace research"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the NFFO, Greenpeace\u2019s Wolf in Shrimp\u2019s Clothing<\/i> report contains claims which misrepresent and discredit the many independent, inshore fishermen lobbying for better livelihoods as part of the NFFO.<\/p>\n

Ned Clark, inshore fisherman and Chair of the North East Committee of the National Federation of Fishermen\u2019s Organisations (NFFO) said: \u201cWhilst Greenpeace and the NFFO share a common goal in working towards a more successful, sustainable fishing industry, this report is desperate in its efforts to create and exploit divisions in our sector. Fortunately there seem to be few fishermen who buy into what is propaganda, flawed research and blatant distortions of the truth.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NFFO has led the way in establishing fisheries science partnerships, initiated discard reduction initiatives, and worked with scientists and NGOs on the development of sustainable fishing plans for the North Sea, Celtic Sea, Irish Sea and West of Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreenpeace on the other hand has limited its contribution to spreading intentionally divisive disinformation and has been invisible in any of the multiple conservation initiatives which have succeeded in turning stock trends around over the last 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result of the claims, the NFFO has compiled \u2018Fishing Fact, Fishing Fiction\u2019 \u2013 the top 10 most inaccurate and sensationalist claims within the Greenpeace report, alongside the true facts.<\/p>\n

The NFFO: Fishing Fact, Fishing Fiction<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The NFFO is dominated by foreign interests<\/b>: Only 8% of the vessels in NFFO membership are owned outside the UK \u2013 it\u2019s true these vessels tend to be at the larger end of the scale but many fish in external waters – Norway and Greenland for example \u2013 inaccessible to smaller boats. <\/li>\n
  2. Big Boat Dominated: \u201cIt is unlikely that there will be many independent vessels in the NFFO\u201d: <\/b>60 per centof the NFFO\u2019s member vessels are below 15 meters in length and almost all of those are small, family-owned businesses.<\/li>\n
  3. The NFFO re presents less than 9% of under 10m fleet:<\/b> Only a third of the 2,951 under 10m vessels registered in the UK fish for quota regulated species. Around 30 per cent of these are NFFO members but many of our members also fish for non quota species such as Bass and shellfish.<\/li>\n
  4. The NFFO is trying to sideline the smaller fisherman and shut them out<\/b>: Why would it when 60 per cent of member vessels are below 15 metres and 40% are under-10 metres? What the NFFO is against is a separate advisory council<\/i> for small scale fleets, as it would lead to rapid ghettoisation. Our \u2018leaked\u2019 letter to the Commission, available to download on www.nffo.org.uk<\/a> put forward a number of positive suggestions on strengthening the voice of the small scale fleet.<\/li>\n
  5. The NFFO is trying to deny the small scale fisherman more quota:<\/b> The NFFO has made real advances in strengthening the position of the under-10m fleet, including making professional quota management accessible to the under-10s, giving them the opportunity to maximise quotas levels with the over-10\u2019s through swaps and transfers.<\/li>\n
  6. Quota Grab by Quota Barons is the Root of the Problem:<\/b> This is not the case – under-10 \u2018Rule Beater\u2019 vessels currently catch 70% of the under-10m quota allocations, despite comprising only 14% of the fleet, and the NFFO is actively lobbying Government to address this.<\/li>\n
  7. The NFFO is blocking new fisheries policy that would reward those that fish sustainably: <\/b>The NFFO has led the way in establishing fisheries science partnerships, initiated discard reduction initiatives, and worked with scientists and NGOs on the development of sustainable fishing plans.<\/li>\n
  8. The NFFOs main aim is to serve Producer Organisations (POs) which represent larger vessels – <\/b>the NFFO does work closely with POs but most comprise of varying fleets and interests \u2013 for example half the members of the Cornish Fish Producers\u2019 Organisation, the largest in the Federation \u2013 are under 10m fleet, with many small, family owned businesses.<\/li>\n
  9. Our website lists member associations that are defunct:<\/b> True. We are guilty of not updating our website and the incorrect information has now been removed.<\/li>\n
  10. The NFFO is not what it seems: <\/b>NFFO has earned respect over many years by championing advancing credible policy positions, backed by evidence, working with independent fisheries scientists and fisheries managers, and of being inclusive and open. Practically everything we do or say appears on our website; our accounts are publicly available.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Greenpeace\u2019s report can be downloaded here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The National Federation of Fisherman\u2019s Organisations (NFFO) has identified 10 flaws in a report by Greenpeace, which it says risks dividing and damaging the very livelihoods, industry and food supply the environmental group purports to support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-4976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4976"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=4976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}