Why I'll flout EU fish rules

A WESTCOUNTRY fisherman has sent a defiant message to the EU – by giving away surplus fish he has caught to the elderly instead of dumping it overboard.

Mick Mahon, 60, who has been fishing for 43 years, decided to take a stand against European fishing quotas, and has begun handing his surplus catch out free of charge.

Father-of-two Mr Mahon, from Newlyn, Cornwall, is giving the fish away to elderly people walking past his fishing boat – and will not accept payment.

Instead, he asks that people receiving his fish make a donation to the RNLI or the seamen's mission charity boxes.

Mr Mahon, who owns the 29ft trawler J-Anne, said dumping fish was a moral issue for him, and he was aware that there were penalties.

He added: "In his speech, the EU Fisheries Minister said that it was immoral to throw away fish.

"Well I'm a moral person and I'm not dumping fish any more.

"I'm deliberately not making a single penny out of it all.

"All I ask is they put a few pennies in the RNLI and mission collection boxes when they pass by.

"We've all got TVs on our boats – you dump a couple of tons of fish and then turn on to see people starving in Africa.

"It's a sick world that makes fishermen throw away fish."

Mr Mahon's wife Joan said she did not think her husband feared any reprisals from the Marine and Fisheries Agency (MFA).

"I asked if he was worried about being fined but he said, 'I hope they go ahead, because think of the bad publicity for them.'"

The MFA enforces quota regulations by imposing fines on fishermen who break the rules.

It said that it was against the law to land fish without quota, regardless of what the fisherman then did with it – "sell it or give it away".

Fish quotas are set by the EU, based on scientific advice from Cefas (the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science).

However, "by-catch" – untargeted fish caught in nets – is a continuing problem.

Mr Mahon said his biggest by-catch was haddock.

"I have a quota for 500 tons a month and I can catch that in one tow," he said.

"In all my years as a fisherman, I have never seen so much haddock – I can't get away from it."

Paul Trebilcock, fishermen's representative of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, said he could not argue with Mr Mahon's moral stance. "There is definitely more haddock out there than there has been for years.

"It's one of those quotas which is out of line with its assessments."

Mr Trebilcock said he was trying to persuade the MFA to take another look at the stock and reconsider the quota.

An MFA spokesman said it recognised there was unhappiness at the size of quotas for the under-10-metre fleet.

"We are taking various measures to try and improve the situation.

"But that situation will not be helped by individuals breaking the law and the MFA will take the appropriate action if the law is broken," he said.

Mrs Mahon' said that her husband – a well-known local campaigner – was even considering retiring because he felt there were too many rules and regulations.

She added: "He feels the authorities are far too strict with fishermen.

"He doesn't agree with the quotas. He feels the quotas have destroyed the fishing industry."

Some fishermen have found alternative ways of fishing which removes the discard problem.

A bass-tagging scheme devised by Newlyn skipper Andrew Pascoe and Nathan de Rozarieux, project director of Seafood Cornwall, has created a sustainable inshore bass fishery by returning to the oldest and most sustainable methods of fishing.

Different types of lines and hooks are used, according to the species.

There is no by-catch and because the fish are caught live, any undersized ones are immediately returned to the water.

The Cornish fishing fleet is made up mainly of small vessels under 10 metres long.

Less than a third of the fleet consists of netters and bigger trawlers.

Yet only around 10 per cent of the quota for species caught in the waters off Cornwall – cod, sole, Dover sole, monkfish, hake, plaice, megrim sole, pollock, haddock, ling, coley and langoustine – is allocated to Cornish boats.

The remaining quota goes to boats from France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands – the result of fisheries rights being given away when Britain joined the Common Market in 1973 under former PM Edward Heath.