Prawns row as EU fishermen accused of ignoring post-Brexit rules by using destructive nets

A prawns row has broken out between EU and UK fishermen as Danish boats have been accused of ignoring conservation rules by using destructive nets to plunder our oceans after Brexit.

Scottish fishers in the Fladen prawn grounds to the east of the Shetland Islands have raised the alarm after a fleet of ten Danish multi-rig trawlers, using quad-rigs, appeared in the middle of March.

This type of fishing has been banned in Scottish waters since 2007, but the Danish fishing industry has blamed "confusing" post-Brexit rules for the mishaps.

Boats in Scotland are limited to using two nets at a time, while this ships were using four. This is because conservationists have claimed fishing vessels using this method trawling for Norway lobster were catching immature haddock as bycatch. Multi-rig trawling can boost fish catch capacity by up to 80 per cent.

Fisherman John Clark said that these boats could decimate langoustine stocks. He told The Fishing Daily: “These big Danish factory freezer trawlers have never fished here before, but we feel they are trying to steal the UK market and they could crash the prawn stock on the Fladen ground.

“We banned the use of more than the two-net multi-rig over ten years ago because it could flood the market with prawns and could increase the method of high-grading prawns to clear the hopper before the next haul.”

After the ships were spotted, Mike Park, chair of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association (SWFPA) wrote to Danish fishermen about the issue.

Ole Lundberg Larsen, deputy director of the Danish Fisheries Association, said in a letter to fishers: "There has been much discussion and ambiguity about the use of multi-trawl in the fishing for Norway lobster. It is not clear from the licenses simply that one has to comply with national regulations, and here, according to the Scottish authorities, there is a Scottish ban on multi-trawl. Therefore, only up to two trawls may be used for fishing in the Scottish zone."

He blamed Brexit for the issue, explaining: “We look very critically at what is going on!

“It seems that the UK is undermining the fisheries agreement it has concluded with the EU. We have paid dearly for access to British waters, but the British are undermining access if they make such complicated and unreasonable rules that they are constantly changing."