Octopus by-law 'forcing me out of fishing'
BBCSam Jago's family have been fishing in Cornish waters since the 1700s.
But that generations-old tradition has been halted due to by-laws passed to protect crab and lobster stocks after an invasion of Mediterranean octopus.
Jago's wooden fishing boat is 58 years old, but, at more than 12m (39ft) long, has been outlawed by the new rules which ban larger vessels setting shellfish pots in coastal waters.
The Cornwall Inshore Fisheries Authority (IFCA) said the by-laws, which also restrict the volume of specific tanks for crab and lobster storage, would help prevent over-fishing.
Chief officer Sam Davis said: "Larger vessels are able to work significantly more pots and land more crabs and lobsters than smaller vessels.
"This measure was identified by the majority of local fishermen as an effective first stage to reduce fishing effort."
Jago FamilyJago, from Kingsand in Cornwall, is pleading to be exempted from the by-laws.
He said, while he had a larger boat, he operated on a small scale.
Jago, who took the family boat over from his father, said: "If they want to stop foreign boats coming in, that's fair enough. But we've been fishing here for decades.
"This boat's been in the family for 58 years. It costs a bit of money to keep up because it's old, and it needs a lot of maintenance - but it's part of the family."
Jago said Cornwall fisheries officers had told him to fish elsewhere but it was not an option.
He said: "They said: 'Go and fish over there', but that is where the French trawlers are. There's no crab and there's no ground.
"If we can't fish inside the six mile limit, it's game over for us."
Jago, who lands his catches at Sutton Harbour in Plymouth, said there was no ban on larger vessels in the Devon and Severn fishery area, leaving him questioning the science applied in Cornwall.
"Today we had a string of 60 pots and half was in Cornwall and half in Devon. In Devon, my boat's not a problem.
"In Cornwall, they are making it a problem - even though we've fished here since as long as I can remember."
'Like the Wild West'
Edward Baker, chief executive of Plymouth Fishing and Seafood Association, said the octopus bloom had "created a bit of a bonanza" in south-west England.
"The UK might have about five tonnes of octopus just a few years ago and we're now in the thousands of tonnes," he explained.
"But the octopus has also worked its way through our shellfish population. It's eaten pretty much all the brown crab, all the scallops, to the point where it put one of our major crab suppliers in Plymouth out of business."
He said octopus had originally been a "complete lifesaver for many fishermen".
"It's basically enabled the local fishermen to survive, but it's also encouraged a lot more vessels to come into the South West and set some pots, to the point where fishermen have described it to me as a bit like the Wild West."
"There's pots being set over pots and it sounds like a bit of mayhem that has led to IFCA reacting to the volume of vessels," Baker said.
"They are trying to prevent overfishing, damage to the seabed or too much gear conflict by putting in legislation to try and restrict larger boats.
"But that legislation has affected one of our local vessels, which is a larger boat but still operates on a small scale.
"It seems to have been collateral damage to legislation supposed to prevent big vessels coming into the area, rather than stopping the locals from fishing normally."
'Displaced boats'
Independent fisheries scientist Simon Thomas said drafting by-laws was "difficult" but they could have "unforeseen consequences".
"My concern is for vessels that exceed 15m [50ft] that have probably been working our waters for generations.
"These boats are being treated the same as modern 50m [164ft] boats, which have much more fishing power than the older boats.
"You're actually displacing these older boats from traditional grounds and traditional methods."
Davis said the Crustacean and Molluscan Fisheries (Vessel Specification) By-law had taken several years to develop and the measures in it came from ideas supported by local fishermen concerned about the future of crab and lobster fishing around Cornwall.
She said: "It is the first stage in a process to manage all fishing effort for these species which are so valuable to inshore fishermen in Cornwall.
"The next stage of this process will involve all fishermen catching these species and look at pot numbers as one of several potential solutions for the future for all sizes of fishing vessels."
Asked why Cornwall's approach was different to the Devon and Severn fishery, Davis said each fishing authority could "choose to take the most appropriate approach for its district, depending on the specific situation it is facing".
She added the emergency octopus by-law was is in place to reduce the impact potting for octopus by larger vessels had on other shellfish species.
"How octopus stocks are managed in the future is being considered more widely by fishermen and fisheries regulators, looking at regional and national issues," Davis added.
