British fishermen are being told that the illegal trade in black market fishing must stop.

The Government believes more than 40% of fish eaten in this country is landed illegally, away from the scrutiny of inspectors.

Fishermen will have to stick to their quotas

"So much black fish has been landed, it's actually depressed the price of fish at markets," said the Fisheries Minister Elliott Morley.

From the new year, British ports are likely to be policed more rigorously and satellite tracking devices will be used to monitor big trawlers.

Mr Morley told the House of Commons he had prevented drastic cuts in the size of the British fishing fleet.

There will be less sole at the fishmongers

The European Union has started negotiating quotas for next year and there had been fears that the British fleet might have been cut by up to 30%.

The Government has secured a number of technical changes to the scheme which will allow the UK industry to escape most of the cuts.

Opening a fishing debate in the Commons, Mr Morley said "I can now say that we have succeeded in making very considerable progress in mitigating the scale of cuts which the industry feared."

Scientists say numbers of North Sea cod have increased dramatically and suggest British fishermen should be able to catch 20% more.

Small fishing boats will escape the worst of the cuts

The total allowable catch for cod has been set at a figure lower than the scientists' recommendation and quotas for other fish will be cut even further.

Catch reductions are likely to be imposed on boats which fish for mackerel, herring, plaice and sole.

The Government plans to focus the fleet reductions on Britain's biggest and most lucrative vessels. It may achieve this partly by reducing the number of days they can put out to sea.

This will include more than 40 Spanish and Dutch-owned ships which have British licences.

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