On 6 February, the Isle of Man Government launched a consultation on a proposal to close vast areas of their fishing grounds, which the Northern Ireland trawl fleet has fished for generations. The consultation closed on 18 March, and access was shut off on 1 April. The Manx Government's evidence document admitted that they cannot accurately measure the value of the fishing area to our trawl fleet. It also recognised that the closed areas interfere with trawl patterns in ways that make even trawling adjacent to the closed areas unviable.

The Isle of Man Government purport to have done that to protect blue-carbon habitats, but the science does not support blanket trawling bans as an effective measure. It is suspected that the purpose of the closure is the Isle of Man's proposal to establish a pot fishery for prawns where our vessels trawled. With Northern Ireland vessels out of the way, they have granted themselves a free run. However, there are flaws in the evidence document. In practice, only one in four of the animals in the pot fishery will be of marketable size to langoustine buyers, so it will not be the higher value fishery that the document suggests. To achieve the hoped-for economic benefit, instead of licensing 400 pots per boat, they will require more than 1,600 pots. The environmental impact of each boat working 1,600 pots is potentially catastrophic.

The UK Government gift the Isle of Man additional fishing quotas every year, which include prawn and herring quotas. Surely that cannot be allowed to continue, when the reward for that generosity is having our traditional fishing grounds snatched away from us. The ban will cause financial stress for almost every trawlerman in Northern Ireland, and it will put pressure on the 1,850 full-time equivalents in our fishing industry and those that they support. It is imperative that DEFRA, in recognition of this devastating decision, provides some means of compensation for the loss and to support diversification, perhaps in the form of additional herring quota. In no way will that replace the economic value of what has been taken, but Northern Ireland's fishermen need our support and a principled stand must be taken. I call on the Agriculture Minister to urgently meet his Manx counterpart to request that the position that has been taken be reversed, and to speak to the Secretary of State at DEFRA and the Fisheries Minister to discuss alternatives for our fleet.