Mick Mahon's notebook aboard his 29 foot trawler 'J-Anne', working out of Newlyn, Cornwall, England.

'Grimmy' has been a fisherman for 41 years, starting his career from his home port of Grimsby, working off Iceland, Greenland and the White Sea, during the time when the UK cod fleet was being ousted from North Atlantic waters.

Having fished out of Newlyn for 27 years, he feels that he is now being 'economically kicked out of his own waters' and that the UK fishing industry is being selectively destroyed by the Common Fisheries Policy that is run from Brussels.

Mick says 'There is no future for our fishing industry while Brussels is in charge and while priorities are more politics than fish conservation'.

In 2004, as part of the 'Save British Fish Campaign' he spent 22 days sailing his boat around the south and south east coast, stopping at 17 ports on his way to Traitors Gate at the Tower of London, aiming to hand over copies of each EU treaty signed by the UK, although he was prevented from doing this.

'We've got the richest fishing grounds in the world around our coasts and we've got a declining industry. There's something wrong somewhere and I blame Europe. It's Brussels that's destroyed my living'.

UPDATE:
He has now retired from fishing and his beloved J-Anne scrapped.
One of his last acts of defiance was to illegally land his over-quota fish and give it away to the elderly rather than throwing back into the sea dead or dying, which the law requires him to do.