The EU is planning radical changes to stem the tide of collapsing fish stocks but will legislation save the seas?

Alan Hayes has heard it all before. In more than 30 years earning his living from the sea he has seen huge changes in the fishing industry.

The latest changes to Brussels Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) include tighter enforcement of catch limits and a comprehensive vessel-scrapping programme.

The tough controls are being dealt out with the usual doom-laden predictions that the sea will soon be emptied of fish.

But Mr Hayes, 58, who lives in Moulsecoomb, Brighton, is not alone in wondering whether the fishing industry also faces a threat from inside, as the younger generation choose to pursue careers away from the ocean waves.

My Hayes became a full-time fisherman in the early Sixties.

He retired last year and runs a fish stall at King's Road Arches on the seafront with his wife Carol, who can trace her family's connections to the local fishing industry back to 1623.

He said: "All through history there have been ups and downs in the fishing industry. It is a very hard life. These days the bigger boats have to have computers on board to keep up with the legislation and regulations."

He said more fish were now landed in Brighton than in the Fifties, thanks to improvements introduced by modern technology, such as nylon nets.

But it would be the success of the technology that killed off the industry. Until then the industry was stable.

He said: "When I left school in the late Fifties, fishing in Brighton was at an all-time low. It is now pretty stable.

"More people are now making a living from fishing locally than forty years ago."

He said it had been obvious for a long time the EU policy was failing but there would always be a conflict between fishermen trying to earn a living and at the same time conserve stocks for the future.

He said: "Something has got to be done because fishing stocks have deteriorated in the last five years.

"Silly people in offices tell you the plaice catch has got to go up one month and down the next. It is bureaucracy gone wrong.

"They should really increase the size of fish that can be landed by at least two inches."

Matt Leach, whose family runs Brighton and Newhaven Fish Sales, a wholesale fish market at Shoreham Harbour, says it is difficult to predict what the future holds for local fishermen.

He said: "It is a very difficult situation. It is all about money."

Mr Leach, 31, who lives in Ovingdean, comes from one of the oldest fishing families in the area and has worked for the family business since he left school.

He believes there are about 100 fishermen working between Shoreham and Newhaven.

He said the news of the proposed changes was taken seriously but until the plans were implemented it was hard to say what the effect would be on the local industry.

At the moment they were more worried about dealing with their daily workload, coping with high fuel prices and the unusually poor weather.

Mr Leach said since the CFP was introduced many fishermen had left the industry, attracted by payments brought in to decommission fishing boats.

He said: "The EU cannot force them out but it can pay sufficient money to make them go voluntarily.

"Or it can make it very difficult for fishermen by increasing enforcement and making it uncomfortable.

"Now most of those left in the industry are like ourselves, a lot more professional and very committed to what we do.

"We don't mind working within a system that is fair but the quota system is not. It does not conserve the fish.

"For example, if, because of the quotas, we were not allowed to catch cod, we can target sole but the net does not know.

"We have to haul it up to the surface and then throw it over the side. By then it cannot get back to the depths and it is eaten by seagulls. That is how the quotas work."

The deciding factor would be the political lobbying by different EU countries as each sought to protect its own fishing industry.

Mr Leach said: "The EC has said it wants a 40 per cent cut. Obviously other countries, such as Spain, will be lobbying hard to oppose that.

"They have to try to appease all the EU member nations. There are 16,000 fishermen in the UK and 68,000 in Spain."

He said the public haddifferent views of fisherman but the future of the industry might be decided by the younger generation turning away rather than restrictions introduced by the EU.

He said: "One side think of us as wicked people pillaging the sea while the other thinks there are just a few fishermen left and we do no harm.

"It is a hard way to make a living. Youngsters are not coming into it. This may be a bigger problem for the fishing industry.

"Where are we going to find a future labour force?"

Tim Dapling, chief fisheries officer of Sussex Sea Fisheries Committee, said members were pleased the CFP was being reviewed and issues of sustainability of stocks were being addressed.

He said it was not clear how the changes in policy were going to impact on the Sussex coast, where up to 400 vessels were working within six nautical miles off the coastline.

He said: "We welcome any approach that is going to make a better management of the stocks. The eco-system approach is a priority."