UK exit from fish deal ‘an aggressive step’

The UK’s withdrawal from an arrangement allowing other countries to fish in British waters is an aggressive step, but not totally surprising, according to one of the country’s largest fish producers’ group.

The British government will trigger exit from the London Fisheries Convention, signed in 1964 before joining the EU, to start the two-year process to leave the agreement.

The convention grants rights to neighbouring countries to fish in each other’s fishing zones based on historic fishing activity. It allows vessels from Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands to fish within six and 12 nautical miles of the UK’s coastline.