EU versus UK court clash over North Sea post-Brexit sandeel fishing ban

The EU and UK are set for a court clash next week over the government's ban on the fishing of sandeels in the North Sea.

The ban, enforced last March, was hailed as a lifeline for puffins, kittiwakes and other threatened seabirds, after decades of campaigning finally halted industrial fishing in the English North Sea and Scottish waters.

But to the bitter disappointment of conservationists, the European Commission demanded it was lifted, claiming it breaches the UK’s post-Brexit breakup deal.

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Danish fishermen, who have 96 per cent of the EU’s sandeel quota in the North Sea, claim the ban is "discriminatory" as it only really affects EU fishermen.

The RSPB Seabird Cruise, along the Bridlington coastline up to Bempton Cliffs..Kittiwakes nesting on the cliffs..16th June 2021..Picture by Simon HulmeThe RSPB Seabird Cruise, along the Bridlington coastline up to Bempton Cliffs..Kittiwakes nesting on the cliffs..16th June 2021..Picture by Simon Hulme
The RSPB Seabird Cruise, along the Bridlington coastline up to Bempton Cliffs..Kittiwakes nesting on the cliffs..16th June 2021..Picture by Simon Hulme

Three judges will hear the three-day case at The Hague, which starts next Tuesday.

Announcing the tribunal, the EU Commission said both parties set quotas on the basis of advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, which seeks to allow fishing while maintaining healthy stocks.

It added: "When it comes to managing shared resources, all decisions taken by the EU or the UK must be non-discriminatory, proportionate to the objectives and based on the best available scientific evidence."

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Last year Jens Schneider Rasmussen, Chairman of Denmark’s Pelagic Producer Organisation said the ban had been decided in a process “devoid of independent scientific advice and proportionality” and “clearly violates the Brexit agreement made on December 24, 2020”.

However 19 UK and 16 EU conservation groups have backed the UK's ban. They say the small, innocuos looking fish which spends most of its life buried in sand is the most important in the North Sea ecosystem as they are the mainstay of marine food webs that support wildlife from cod to kittiwakes.

Many seabirds – including those at RSPB Bempton Cliffs - rely on sandeels to feed their chicks. Kirsten Carter, head of UK marine policy at the RSPB, said the case was “almost setting a precedent” in the run up to the 2026 review of the 2020 Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU. She said: “It’s a small fish caught in a big argument about how we work with the EU in the future.”

In 2023 Danish fishers were awarded a quota of 180,000 tonnes of the fish which are turned into fish oil and meal to feed farmed fish and livestock like pigs.

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