FISHING bosses were this week fighting European plans for quota cuts which could hit the Newlyn fisherman hard.
Proposals by the EU Commission were expected to see more stringent limits applied to 64 species for 2011.
Under the proposals, which were debated on Monday and Tuesday, sole was expected to be the only species that fishermen would be able to catch more of.
Many other species face cuts. Throughout the region fished off the Cornish coast, known as Area 7, the limits for megrim sole, monkfish, pollock, plaice and coley could be slashed by up to 15 per cent.
Stay one step ahead of the winter weather
Brussels was also proposing cutting the total catch for cod by 15 per cent – a move that has enraged St Ives MP Andrew George.
Stringent
He took the fight to Parliament in recent weeks when he called for the cod quota to be increased, with reports from Cornish fisherman that the species is flourishing off the coast.
He told the House of Commons that up to three in four fish caught recently has been "perfectly marketable large cod". But the stringent rules meant they had to be thrown back dead.
The Liberal Democrat MP for West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly called on Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon to allow Parliament to have a further debate on the future of the Common Fisheries Policy.
Paul Trebilcock, of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, said: "The commission appears to be taking a far harder line on total allowable catches this year for political reasons rather than based on good science."
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN