Brexit revives historic herring fishing after 25-year hiatus
Views (71)
The Isle of Man’s historic herring industry is being revived after a quarter of a century thanks to a post-Brexit deal with the UK over fishing quotas.
The island’s fishermen were reduced to scratching a living catching scallops. By the start of the millennium, the herring quota was too small to be commercially viable.
The herring industry dates back to at least the 13th century on the island. At its height in the early 19th century, it had a fleet of 350 fishing vessels.
Cured herrings were exported to Britain, Ireland, Italy and the Mediterranean. In the 1820s, Scottish and Cornish fishermen set course for Manx waters to share in the bounty.
During the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, one in every 15 soldiers was evacuated on a boat registered in the Isle of Man.
Clare Barber, the Manx minister for the environment, said the new quotas amounted to a “once in a generation opportunity” to revive the island’s herring industry, which will be sustainably managed under the agreed quota system.
The number of herring in the Irish Sea has doubled since the 1990s, and the herring fishing season will only run from July to October.
Herring, known as skeddan in the Manx language, were once so important to the island’s diet and food security that Manx folklore tells of how skeddan became King of the Sea – something still celebrated in Manx folk music.
0 Likes