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> most fish eaten in the UK has always been imported, e.g. Icelandic cod.

Not always (Cod Wars). And our herring catch was once its own industry.

> And the fact the UK fishermen were die-hard pro-Brexit is odd given they should have been aware that the majority of their regular catch was sold to EU buyers.

They thought they'd have a monopoly on those fishing grounds post-Brexit.

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The problem for them wasn't the sales, it was the catches. The EU was good for farmers, not so good for fisheries. The EU fishing rules meant multiple countries could fish the same grounds meaning overfishing. The UK was much stricter on net sizes than Spain was.

> The EU was good for farmers, not so good for fisheries.

It was good for industrial farming, not the farmers themselves, one of the big reasons for Norway refusing to join was the impact it would have on farmers.

That seems more a feelings than fact based view. The Norwegian referendum had many reasons, but as for Brexit they were not necessarily based on rational analysis. Norway is nominally independent but in every economic sector, including farming, pretty much integrated with the EU countries.

I knew plenty of smaller and tenant farmers who benefitted from the EU. There weren't industrial farms around there.

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