The news this week that the United Kingdom’s leading inshore fishermen’s group, New Under Ten Fishermens Association (NUTFA), is to form an alliance with Greenpeace will come as a surprise to many and will certainly raise a few eyebrows.

Despite the traditional mistrust that many fishermen hold of Greenpeace, this unlikely alliance looks set to give the inshore sector some serious clout in its fight for survival.

 
On meeting both Jerry Percy of NUTFA and Alicia Craw of Greenpeace last week, my immediate question was “what’s in this for Greenpeace”? (Perhaps the ex-fisherman in me was letting a grain of suspicion show through).

On listening to their responses, it is clear that this is no public relations exercise by Greenpeace but it is a genuine attempt to address the current problems in the inshore sector, and perhaps to also repair some of the historical problems in Greenpeace itself.

By now most people are aware of the ongoing quota problem that exists in the United Kingdom's...