TEMPERS have flared in a confrontation between fishermen and their industry leaders over plans for new bylaws on fishing off the Yorkshire coast.

Fred Normandale, chairman of Scarborough Inshore Fishermen's Society, demanded more trawlermen were appointed to the North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee at its latest meeting. He said the committee's proposed bylaws would pitch trawlermen against those fishing with pots at Scarborough.

"There will be warfare where there is, at present, harmony," he told the committee chairman, George Traves.

Mr Normandale said it would hit local fishermen hard. "The committee seems to be against the trawlermen," he said.

The fishermen claimed they were being hit by the committee because they had no voice. Some fishermen had investments of more than £1 million in their boats and their future was now threatened.

They said that jobs would be lost and merchants on the fish piers would also suffer.

David McCandless, the acting chief fishery officer, said the proposed trawler bylaws would see an extension of the present three-mile limit to six miles and methods other than boat fishing would be allowed.

There would also be a ban on pair and multi-trawls.

He said there was concern about the state of the lobster fishing industry because of the decline in stocks.

"We want to protect the stocks by prohibiting the removal of berried lobsters," he said.