Battlelines drawn with EU over post-Brexit UK ban on fishing for sandeels in North Sea

The ban, which came into force in late March, was hailed as a lifeline for puffins, kittiwakes and other threatened seabirds, after decades of campaigning finally halted industrial fishing in the English North Sea and Scottish waters.

But in a move conservationists labelled “shameful”, the European Commission demanded the ban is lifted, claiming it breaches the UK’s post-Brexit breakup deal.

According to reports, the UK and the EU have until today ( to find a compromise or the issue will go to an arbitration panel. If the panel finds against the UK, and it failed to comply, Brussels could retaliate with sanctions.

Dozens of conservation groups have pledged their support for the UK ban, including the RSPB, ClientEarth and the Marine Conservation Society.

RSPB Bempton Cliffs is home to the UK’s largest mainland seabird colony. Around half a million seabirds, including gannets, kittiwakes, guillemots and razorbills as well as around 3,000 puffins breed on the chalk cliffs.

Many seabirds, including puffins, rely on sandeels to feed their chicks. However the small, silvery fish are targeted, mainly by fishing boats from Denmark, which catch around 250,000 tonnes of sandeels in UK waters every year, to turn into fish oil and fish meal. Danish fishers say the ban is a breach of the Brexit agreement's wording that reciprocal access to fishing in the waters of the parties must be granted, and the move is a “humiliation” of the EU. They say the fishery is well managed already, with quotas in place and a system of closed areas to protect fish when they breed.

Jens Schneider Rasmussen, Chairman of the Danish Pelagic Producers' Organization, said: “No stone must be left unturned, and we must fight to the end.”

However conservationists say seabirds face numerous challenges, including avian flu, which in recent years has killed tens of thousands of birds, including gannets and skuas, devastating already declining species and reversing positive trends in others. The ban is the “single greatest act to safeguard” seabirds.

Ariel Brunner, director of BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, said: “The EU’s decision to challenge such a positive measure is simply shameful. The European Commission is seeking to prevent the UK from taking urgently needed action which the EU itself should have taken long ago.”

A government spokesperson said the move was a “necessary step” to protect vulnerable seabird populations: “We took the decision to close our North Sea waters to all sandeel fishing to protect seabirds. “This closure is fully compliant with our obligations under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement and applies equally to UK and non-UK vessels.”