Navigating Brexit Waters: Climate change is forcing traditional fish stocks to migrate north.
Britain and its neighbours in the European Union currently enjoy equal access to EU waters, and can buy and sell fish freely inside the world’s largest trading bloc. That will change with Brexit — though the exact trade relationship and the question of how to divvy up the seas has to be negotiated.
Many Brexit supporters want London to manage the fish catch within its Exclusive Economic Zone — the zone around every country over which it enjoys special rights — and to bar competition from EU fishing vessels.
Britain has said it plans to allow foreign ships to fish in British waters after Brexit but says it will carefully control access. The EU wants something close to the status quo, industry sources say.
Fish, of course, do not respect borders or economic zones. Currently, fish stocks are jointly managed, with quotas exchanged between EU states as well as Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Depending on the outcome of negotiations, Britain may need to agree stocks, and catch limits and landing rights with its neighbours.
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