"It was need , not greed"

Black fish court case sentences - after many months of proceedings the biggest case of its kind in Cornwall was settled in part at Truro Crown Court today.

Read the press release: "The owners and skippers of six Newlyn fishing vessels who deliberately over-fished protected fish stocks for financial gain and an auctioneer who sold their fish were ordered to pay a total of £188,450 in fines and costs by a judge at Truro Crown Court on January 6th 2009."

Coverage in the media includes:
The Cornishman
Western Morning news
and an article which appears, interestingly enough, in the Environment section of the Guardian's website
and a response from fellow fishermen in the Devon port of Brixham - home to the country's largets beamer fleet.

and here is a reminder of a short video made for the Guardian Newspaper earlier this year highlighting the eniquity of the quoat system and the law.

Hake, which made up much of the fish identified as illegally retained, landed and sold as 'black fish', is the main target for gill netters during the summer months....
owners of the Ben Loyal (at the time) pensioners Don and Joan Turtle seen here leaving the court, "it was need, not greed.... our family boat directly supported 25 people"........
others involved were the owners, including 83 year old Doreen Hicks, of the Ben My Chree,......
the CKS, then owned and skippered by Drew Davies, "the fine doesn't match the crime"....
the CarolH and......
the Ajax owned by Barney and Cynthia Thomas, and their respective skippers were given the largest fines......
the owners of the Girl Patricia, sadly lost last summer, were also fined....
the Ben Loyal was skippered by John Turtle, son of Don and Joan Turtle.