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Video footage of the five-man crew of a Newlyn fishing boat throwing back
tons of Cornish cod, is being sent to EU Fisheries Commissioner, Franz
Fischler and the UK Fisheries Minister, MP Ben Bradshaw.
In the wake of the news that Westcountry trawlermen are being forced
to dump an estimated £10 million of dead and dying fish overboard
each year, fishermen's spokesman, Sheryll Murray is planning to challenge
the legality of the EC's instructions that so-called by-catch must be
thrown back if it doesn't form part of the quota. Both she and local fishermen
say the carnage on the sea-bed is now so bad that mounds of discarded
prime fish are being caught in the nets of fishermen working to stringent
quotas.
She plans to send footage of the crew of the Ben Loyal returning large
numbers of healthy fish to the sea - where most sink to the bottom.
Under the Common Fisheries Policy, the EC sees the dumping of fish as
a necessary measure of conservation, enforced by South West Officers from
DEFRA.
Newlyn fishermen's leader, Paul Trebilcock, chief executive of the Cornish
Fish Producers' Organisation said: "Each fisherman is now seen as
a potential criminal in their eyes. Defra have now broken the moral spine
of a once proud fishing industry."
Almost 30 beam trawlers and 20 netting boats at Newlyn face the plight
daily, and it is believed that some £10 million is being lost to
the region's economy each year, based on the price the fish would have
been worth to the industry alone.
Jon Turtle, the Ben Loyal's skipper who helped compile the video, said:
"While the British public are encouraged to believe how the European
quota system is a successful conservation tool, nothing can be further
from the truth.
"Few see the massive amounts of fish dumped each year in order to
fall into line with European quota limits - rules set by non fishermen.
It's crazy.
"And we cannot stop fishing because no-one supports us financially
for that loss. We are forced to fish harder to try to make up that loss,
hence even more fish are dumped."
It is Sheryll Murray's claim that dumping fish is polluting the sea and
she is now investigating whether the EU Commission is now breaking the
law by calling for fish to be dumped.
She said: "Several years ago fishermen were forced to dump large
amounts of plaice when the quota became insufficient. Soon after, those
fishermen found their nets were catching a high proportion of dead and
rotting fish, because live fish had moved away.
"It is far more criminal in my mind to be responsible for putting
rotting fish carcasses on the seabed than it is for being an innocent
fishermen going about his daily duties."
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