MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands fishing industry disappointed with Islands' management of Brexit issues

Mike Summers claimed that there was a “real danger” of the Maritime Authority losing touch with “realities”

Falklands' fisheries company Fortuna Ltd’s Stuart Wallace said at a meeting of Fisheries Committee last week that he was “disappointed” with the level of engagement about Brexit between FIG and the fishing industry.

He said that there was an ongoing impact to the fishing industry from COVID-19 but described Brexit as “the elephant in the room”, calling for an urgent meeting about the issue as soon as possible.

Fisheries Committee chair MLA Teslyn Barkman said that she had been in touch with FIG Representative Richard Hyslop and that, as well as getting briefings from him, she would see if he would be available for a meeting.

Director of Natural Resources Andrea Clausen also had to try and reassure fishing industry representatives last week about the plan to move the Maritime Authority from her directorate to Emergency Services and Island Security: she said she was “aware of concerns” and promised that the two directorates would be “working closely to be joined up.”

Mike Summers claimed that there was a “real danger” of the Maritime Authority losing touch with “realities” but Dr Clausen said this point had already been made to her and that she would be coming back with a plan to deal with that.

Fortuna’s Michael Poole also expressed concern that a new steering committee for the Maritime Authority would not be covered by public access legislation.

He said he had “got suspicious” when he read the recent ExCo paper.