The inshore waters of North West England support a thriving and diverse shellfish industry but in the last few days it has emerged that there are potentially huge impacts on the industry arising from the UK’s exit from the European Union.
The majority of our shellfish stocks are sold to Europe as live stock. Live stock from class B waters (the majority of UK waters) need further processing at ‘depuration centres’ to be fit for human consumption. EU animal health rules ban undepurated stock from being imported from non-member states and setting up new depuration centres in the UK to cope with this would be costly.
The shellfish industry has been discussing the implications of this with the UK Government and had been told that the situation was only temporary however it seems now that the situation could last long-term, with catastrophic effects on the industry.
For more information see news stories in Fishing News and PoliticsHome
