'To me Mick is a hero. But the EU says he's a criminal - because he won't dump dead fish in the sea'. Robin Page."Last week I associated with an uncommon criminal - Mick Mahon, a trawlerman who fishes out of Newlyn in Cornwall. His crime? He refuses to throw good fish back into the sea dead at the behest of EU regulations.
In the name of ‘conservation’, fish exceeding the EU’s quota system must be returned overboard to rot on the seabed. It is absurd and disgraceful.
Mick has finally had enough and now refuses to waste good fish. Instead he either gives it away to hard-up pensioners or sells it to tourists and yachtsmen in return for donations to charities such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Fishermen’s Mission.
Quota rebel: Courageous Cornish trawlerman Mick Mahon shows off his catch
But by so doing his produce immediately becomes illegal and Mick becomes a ‘criminal’ in the eyes of Defra and the EU. Once Defra stood for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; today it appears to be the Department for the Elimination of Fishing and Rural Affairs.
Mick’s problem stems from the fact that Britain’s fisheries were deviously handed over to Europe when Edward Heath took Britain into the EEC in 1973. As a result, British fishermen are entitled to only 10 per cent of the fish in our waters. Each is handed an EU quota. If he nets more than this, he must throw the surplus fish back or face a huge fine, often far greater than those for more serious criminal offences."
LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/mailonsunday/article-1053106/ROBIN-PAGE-To-Mick-hero-But-EU-says-hes-criminal--wont-dump-dead-fish-sea.html
