Fishermen in the Westcountry will have cause to celebrate this Christmas, according to industry leaders who say a "sensible" deal has been reached in annual quota talks.
This week, a summit meeting in Brussels has been hammering out the details of the amounts and types of fish which can be landed on UK shores.
Jim Portus, Chief Executive of the South West Fish Producers Organisation, was in Europe to lobby the meeting.
He said that after grim warnings that there would be hefty cuts to quotas and days allowed at sea, the UK's Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon had secured a good deal.
"We were staring down the barrels of a loaded shotgun and the Minister has disarmed the Fisheries Commission in a deal that will undoubtedly allow fishermen in Brixham, Shoreham, Plymouth, Looe and Newlyn to celebrate Christmas this year."
Ahead of the talks, the commission had tabled a proposal which would have meant sweeping 15 per cent reductions across the board in a move which would have dealt a body blow to the Westcountry's already fragile fishing industry.
Mr Portus said plans to further restrict days at sea would have cost fishermen thousands of pounds in testing economic times and increased wasteful discards.
"Instead, the Minister and his team have responded well to our pleas for common sense to prevail," said Mr Portus.
Among the headlines of the deal agreed has been the prevention of plans to introduce a 'days at sea limit' in the Bristol Channel and the securing of the current level of days at sea for the beam trawler fleet.
Furthermore, proposals that would have reduced the amount of plaice caught in the English Channel, which is largely landed at Brixham, have been rejected.
There is also a 15 per cent increase in the amount of sole caught in the Western Channel, which is good news for Newlyn boats.
Monkfish quotas have been maintained and the amount of megrim and pollack landed, which was to have been reduced by 15 per cent, will now go down by just five and two per cent respectively – all major catches for the Newlyn fleet.
Paul Trebilcock, Chief Executive of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, was also in Brussels and said the minister had done a good job.
"He brought it back from what had been a fairly dire position.
"Nobody wants cuts, but overall what we got was much better than expected."
After emerging from the marathon talks, Mr Benyon said that it had convinced him of the need for major reform of Europe's "broken" Common Fisheries Policy.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN