IN the 1930s, British traw-lers regularly landed more than 300,000 tonnes of cod every year. Today, there are fewer than 70,000 tonnes of adult cod left in the North Sea.
Not surprisingly. the industry is now a shadow of its former self.
Fish landings in the North-East are worth less than £10m a year.
As with the UK overall, the North-East has experienced a decline in the numbers employed as fishermen.
However, the rate of decline has been greater in the North-East than the UK as a whole. Between 1994 and 1997, numbers in the region declined by 25 per cent compared with only ten per cent in the UK.
The industry now supports fewer than 700 jobs in the region.
The busiest fishing ports are North Shields, North Tyneside, and Scarborough, in North Yorkshire.
They are also home to the region's largest fishing vessels.
The number of trawlers has been in steady decline. Latest figures show that, since 2001, the number of fisheries vessels larger than ten metres has fallen from 62 to 51 in Scarborough and from 76 to 58 in North Shields.
Although conservationists insist fishermen have only themselves to blame, industry figures say the EU's Common Fisheries Policy, signed in 1983, is responsible.
This set up a system of quotas for each member state to conserve fish resources. It also established a coastal band around the shores of each country reserved for local fishermen.
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