Since November, many boats have only been able to grab just over half the days at sea they would normally expect.

Newlyn Harbourmaster Andrew Munson said: "I have been here since 1969 and I have never known such a long spell of bad weather in all that time.

"In the past we have had the odd severe storm out there which has been short, sharp and then went away, but this has just been one low after another.

"People are running on reserves at the moment, we are on reserves, the fishing boats will be on reserves and the merchants will be on reserves. Everyone has bills."

Elizabeth Stevenson, partner at W Stevenson, which owns the biggest fleet at Newlyn, said the weather might have been mild, but at sea it was disastrous.

"It has been an extremely bad winter," she said. "There are some boats that haven't been to sea for weeks or more.

"We have had maybe 12 days' fishing in February and a similar amount in January.

"On average I would have expected to get around 21 days fishing in those months."

Miss Stevenson said the bad weather appeared to set in around November and since then the remission had been in lulls of only a few days at a time.

"Everyone is finding it equally hard because of the weather," she added.

article copyright THE CORNISHMAN 

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