TRIALS are about to begin from Peterhead to test a radical design of net that allows cod to escape while increasing the catch of haddock and whiting. Sections of the net have a mesh of 48in, six times larger than normal.

INSHORE fishermen at ports in north Devon hope that a European Commission proposal for the Total Allowable Catch of skate and ray in parts of the Bristol Channel will ensure that big Belgian trawlers give up fishing inside the UK’s 12-mile limit using outrigger trawls.

A ROW has blown up over a government scheme that is allowing skippers of about 30 under-10m boats to land and sell all they catch. Other UK fishermen hampered by heavy restrictions say it is discriminatory, especially as the scheme is operating only in England.

A SKIPPER in Kent who was hit with swingeing £21,000 fine and additional financial penalties for under-declaring his Dover sole catch had the order slashed to just £40. Three Appeal Court judges ruled that the sentencing judge failed to take into account how Stephen Barnes would pay off the money.

IF A legal action by British Seafood to reclaim levy monies from Seafish, the government-sponsored body, is successful it could ‘open the floodgates’ to similar challenges, according to the chief executive of a leading fish merchant in Grimsby.

VESSEL owners, processors and boatbuilders in the West Country are adapting to tougher conditions and higher operating costs, a special FN report reveals. Skippers at Brixham are eager to find out if a run of anchovies before last Christmas that earned them £1m will be repeated this year.

PLANS by the EU Commission to close down bottom trawling off the west coast of Scotland are based on catch numbers and levels of discarded fish recorded back in 2006, the commission revealed in a reply to an vessel operator who asked for detailed figures.