# Newlyn fish firm W. Stevenson & Son ordered to pay £710,000 for quota scam



## shamrock (May 16, 2009)

Further here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8105811.stm


----------



## treeve (Nov 15, 2005)

I am not at all happy with the word 'scam' being used to describe an action that was designed to assist fishermen to continue with their livelihood, not being designed to only aid their own company, and designed to deal with the unfair and ill-designed quota system; all of this is now being closely monitored and lessons will be learned, on all sides. The preservation of an industry and a whole town's living is of prime importance.


----------



## AncientBrit (Oct 6, 2007)

The word scam isnt being used to describe the act that was designed to help fishermen make a living. It is being used to describe those who by devious means, use the act to make more money than those that abide by the rules.
The moment quota systems are intoduced into any industry, they are money in the bank. Quota are bought and sold for millions of dollars/pounds and in more cases than not, the quotas become the source of income rather than part of the means to make an income. In earlier postings, I questioned how on the one hand fishermen can be walking the sackcloth and ashes route, crying poverty and at the same time we see photo's of bigger, newer more expensive trawlers being built daily and when the subject was raised of quotas being bought and sold by those with the money to do so, the topic died a natural death.
Its not the unfair and ill-designed quotas that are vacuuming the worlds oceans, it is Mrs Stevenson and those like her. modern day equivelants of those that cleaned out the Canadian Atlantic and Grand Banks cod stocks and blamed it on the Governments of the day.


----------



## treeve (Nov 15, 2005)

As someone who has seen/watched Newlyn fishermen and their vessels, and spoken with some of them, I can say that anyone who is more far removed from the hyper vessels and big business quota bankers, I have never seen than Mrs Stevenson and the rest of the fleet at Newlyn. They have been losing fleet vessels left right and centre. Vacuuming? - you have got to be joking. The men spend most of their time upgrading existing vessels or demolishing them. There are no giant expensive new vessels at Newlyn.


----------



## E.Martin (Sep 6, 2008)

*Fishing*

I was a fisherman before going into the Merchant Navy after 11 years at sea I married and came ashore and worked shoreside for 36 years mostly working on trawlers maintaining the trawlers and making and repairing fishing gear, every one was happy the fishermen were getting a fair living.
As modern technology was advanced and more powerful trawlers were built, more fish were being caught at times too much and was sold for fertiliser, the owners did not worry about that as they were making money.
Eventually Beam Trawlers came on the scene a completely differant way of fishing,they towed two nets one from a large derrick port side and one from a large derrick starboard side the gear being towed weighed around 7ton aside, this type of fishing caught lots of fish but destroyed everything else on the sea bed and that was the start of the demise of the fishing industry in the North Sea.
The so called experts have tried all sorts of things over the years ie larger mesh differant shape mesh, they introduced quotas which did not work, all they did was start a Black Market, it is against a fishermans grain to throw back into the sea any marketable fish and myself i do not blame any fishermen who try to sell the fish he has caught.
Do other European Countries abide by the rules?, I very much doubt that, I can remember when there was a complete ban on catching Herring regarding any EEC country, the TV cameras were on the Boulogne fish market where Herring were up for sale, the English reporter asked "How come you have Herring for sale", the reply was they are not Herring they are Pilchards".
I rest my case.


----------



## treeve (Nov 15, 2005)

Once a fish is caught - it is dead. The Newlyn fishermen proposed to distribute the over-quota catch to the less well off, but were slammed. What a disastrous waste of fish to throw it back. Quotas are bought and sold across the beam; it is already a farce. Stevensons were protecting the interests of the whole port and the dependent economy of the town. The vessels in Newlyn are tiny compared to the giants of some ports. Dead fish on the table or on the sea bed - is there a choice that makes sense? In my book, the first.


----------

