'We're hoping against hope': Falklands' fishing boom threatened by no-deal Brexit
Source: The Guardian
'We're hoping against hope': Falklands' fishing boom threatened by no-deal Brexit
The islands remarkable transformation has been powered by fishing and locals are anxious at what the future might hold
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Mon 2 Sep 2019 07.30 BST Last modified on Mon 2 Sep 2019 08.13 BST
Since Stuart Wallaces ancestors first arrived in the Falklands in 1842, the family has born witness to the islands transformation from an impoverished outpost of empire to the setting for a remarkable economic boom powered by the modern-day fishing industry.
Nowadays, however, Wallace spends little time dwelling on that past: hes too preoccupied by the threat to the islands new-found wealth posed by the UKs looming departure from the European Union.
For much of the 177 years since the Wallace family arrived, the Falklands economy was based on mutton exports to the United Kingdom.
The likeness of a sheep still appears on the Falkland coat of arms, but the islands trade is no longer primarily bound to the the UK and their main export no longer grazes on land.
If the Falklands crest were to be redesigned now, the sheep might be replaced by the image of a South Atlantic squid, swimming not towards the UK, but in the direction of the European Union.
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Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/02/falkland-islands-fishing-industry-brexit-no-deal