Posted on Facebook and @TRFFSOFC;
"I am Tony Rutherford of Bideford Fisheries Ltd. North Devon. The MMO have stopped boats from fishing, which as we all know was their fault entirely. I have had to close my business, sell £100,000 worth of equipment for a measly sum, lay off all my staff etc. etc.
What did the MMO have the audacity to do today????
Pitch up to raid me and check all the fridges for illegally caught fish. I told them they would be better off spending time in their offices catching up on the work that they should have done to prevent putting us in this pigging mess!
Their answer to this was, "I'm only doing my job" to which I replied, "well you're lucky to have a job".
Just about sums it all up!!!
“While the North Devon fleet is tied up and banned from fishing, Belgian and French boats are continuing to take fish on a huge scale outside our six-mile limit. The oldest fishing port in the UK, Appledore, faces extinction while our supposedly-threatened fish are taken by foreign vessels and landed in Europe.”