The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) has dubbed Greenpeace’s recent claims that its Spanish fleet has been exploiting UK fishing quotas as ‘unqualified, assumption-based nonsense’.
Barrie Deas, Chief Executive of the NFFO, said: "This is wasting valuable time and effort better spent dealing with some of the critical issues at hand, including the impact of the CFP reform, under-10s and long term management plans.”
The NFFO said Greenpeace has omitted to point out that local UK fishermen invited the Anglo-Spanish vessels to join their organisation and that the UK quota under which the Anglo-Spanish vessels operate are based on historical records generated by Anglo-Spanish vessels themselves, before the quota was allocated to the UK.
Mr Deas added: “They have yet to approach us direct with any of their assertions and our repeated efforts to meet with them to look at more credible and effective solutions for supporting our fishermen have been ignored. We extend our offer to meet with Greenpeace to help put to bed any other inaccurate assumptions they decide to make about our membership.”
