LERWICK, United Kingdom, (MILLAT/APP/AFP) – In the
fishing ports of the remote Shetland Islands off northern Scotland, hopes are high that Brexit could boost a once-thriving industry.
George Anderson, 59, skipper of the 70-metre (230 foot) trawler Adenia, told AFP that Brexit was a “no brainer” for Shetland fishermen.
“We only had one choice, which was to get back control,” he said, staring out on windy Lerwick harbour from his high-tech captain’s chair.
The islands’ two fishing ports, Lerwick to the east and Scalloway to the west, are often swept by strong winds that whip up majestic waves.
“The weather? Well, the weather manages you more or less,” Anderson
chuckled in a broad Shetland accent.
“It’s a good job. Unless you’re a fisherman you wouldn’t know — it’s going out hunting fish, catching them, taking them back and providing for your family. The drawbacks are the limited quotas. The government has given away a lot of fish.”
In the Adenia’s crew quarters, a “Fishing For Leave” poster used in the Brexit referendum campaign last year takes pride of place.
– ‘Just a few boats left’ –
===========================
The Shetlands, along with Scotland’s Western Isles, were the only part of the United Kingdom that voted against joining what was then the European Economic Community in a 1975 referendum.
Soon after Britain joined the EEC in 1973, Shetlands fishermen found
themselves hit with a double whammy of European integration and oil.
While the burgeoning oil industry was a boon for the islands as a whole, it drained manpower from a fleet just as it was being compelled to share its waters with a growing number of European nations.
Overfishing led to depleted stocks and decommissioning of vessels, and subsequent quotas often saw Shetlanders sidelined in their own waters.
“It was terrible to watch the decommissioning. Good boats gone, experienced guys giving up the fishing, that was it — gone,” said Anderson, whose three sons work on the Adenia as mate, cook and engineer.