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While part of the EU, the UK has opened its fishing waters to other member states under the Common Fisheries Policy. But now the UK is out of the bloc, and will soon be on the other side of the transition period, European fishermen are being forced to plan for life without British fishing grounds. This is causing concern in Belgium, whose fishermen regularly venture to UK shores in order to reap rewards from its lucrative waters.

Three-quarters of the country’s fleet hunts in the 200 nautical miles from the UK coast over which Britain is to take sovereign control, be it in the North Sea, the Channel or the Irish Sea.

Those waters account for half of the Belgian catch.

In 2017, a year after the referendum, the Managing Director of Rederscentrale, the organisation that represents Belgium’s fishermen, highlighted these concerns.

Emiel Brouckaert told The Observer: “Everyone is thinking about Brexit and the consequences.

“Just under 50 percent of our catches are in our waters, and we hear what our [British] colleagues’ requirements might be, though we realise there are some extreme views there.”

Belgian fishermen were enjoying a period of success in 2017, with cheap fuel and higher prices for produce in the shops creating a healthy business environment.

But the last three decades have seen an unnerving decline. In 1990 there were 200 Belgian vessels.

Economic realities hit, and there was a stream of mergers, as fishermen sought to squeeze the most out of the industry.

Mr Brouckaert continued: “Then the last serious decline was from 100 vessels to the level we are now, and that was since the crisis in 2008.”

Mr Brouckaert is not yet linking the two challenges, but once individual Belgian fishermen start to struggle in a tighter post-Brexit reality, the bigger foreign companies could again swoop – bringing an end to the Belgian fishing industry in all but name.

He added: “We realise that, in a small fleet in a small sector, besides Brexit we have another important challenge for our sector’s survival, and that is succession planning.

“There is a huge interest for any fishing opportunities we might have, not only from Holland, but from all countries, and successful companies that are restricted in their growth.

“They are constantly saying, ‘Where can we find more growth?’ If we don’t have Belgian succession for fishing possibilities, there’ll be lots of European colleagues on the quayside to take it.”

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The Belgian added that he hopes “business as usual” can continue with the UK post-Brexit, but that “people are worried”.

Mr Brouckaert concluded: “We’ve had up to now very good relations with our British colleagues.

“A decision has been made by the UK to leave the EU and it is making people worried, but despite all the political things happening, we still hope we can have business as usual.

“If that’s in a common fisheries policy or a policy jointly negotiated, that is the first thing we are thinking about. Similar access, similar distribution of the quota.”

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