Worthing's war of the whelks

The call follows a dispute between Worthing fishermen and a crew from North Wales who recently began fishing whelks from Shoreham Harbour.

Fishing crews in Worthing and Shoreham have an informal agreement between them to limit catches.

They observe a restriction of up to 350 pots per two-man boat and 200 for single-handed vessels, in an effort to protect the whelk population.

The dispute erupted from concerns whelks could be wiped out and resulted in two Worthing fishermen being cautioned by police for breaching the peace.

Les Gibbs, secretary of the Worthing Fishermen's Society, said new laws were needed to limit the size of whelk catches.

He said one boat operating off the Sussex coast 25 years ago had fished the sea bed so intensively the whelk population was almost wiped out.

He said: "Since then the whelk belts have built up again.

"With restrictions on catching other types of fish, the whelks are becoming a more important part of earnings for local boats.

"The boat from North Wales was fishing more pots than all the others put together.

"He was going to fish the ground out in a year or less.

"The problem is that once he had turned it into a desert he would move onto the next place, but the local crews would be put out of business."

The North Wales crew has now left Shoreham, for a new base in Portsmouth, but local fishermen are worried the problem could happen again.

Mr Gibbs added: "We need safeguards to ensure the seas are fished sustainably, or we could see the collapse of the industry."

He is calling for the Sussex Sea Fisheries District Committee to introduce similar controls to those in place for other marine species such as cod.

To read one fisherman's side of the story, see the Thursday, March 29 edition of the Worthing Herald.