Fishermen from Northern Ireland have challenged European plans to ban cod fishing in the Irish Sea during a meeting with UK Fisheries Minister Elliot Morley.

Local trawlermen said proposed conservation measures would devastate fishing communities along the County Down coast.

European scientists are proposing a ban on cod fishing in the Irish Sea to preserve stocks, which it is claimed, are close to collapse.

Fishermen's leaders, however, said the new conservation measures will also hit catches of other more economically important species like prawns and haddock.

We are looking at an employment of around 2,500 people in County Down

Dick James NI Fish Producers' Organisation

The cod shoals, they said, are the victim of climate change, not overfishing.

The new Northern Ireland agriculture and fisheries minister, Ian Pearson, said the European Commission proposals could have serious consequences for the fishing industry.

He added that he would work to come up with an acceptable solution.

Former Northern Ireland agriculture minister and the SDLP's deputy leader Brid Rodgers said the would have a "devastating impact on the fishing industry here".

Dick James, of the Northern Ireland Fish Producers' Organisation, said the measures could threaten the future of the industry in the province.

"We are looking at an employment of around 2,500 people in County Down," he said.

UK Fisheries Minister Elliot Morley will hear NI fleet's concerns

"If all these measures go through a residual fleet of 12 to 15 boats would be left in Northern Ireland compared with 150 big ones and 100 smaller ones we have now.

"It's horrific to think what this could mean for us."

However, an environmental group has said the current crisis in cod stocks is down to the European Union ignoring years of scientific warnings.

"The threat of a total ban on cod fishing in the Irish Sea is the result of the collective failure of the European Union's Fisheries Ministers to agree a recovery plan for cod," said Heike Vesper of the World Wildlife Fund's Fisheries Campaign.

"Politicians should get out of setting annual quotas.

"Fishermen need long-term planning based on multi-annual management plans such as those proposed by the European commission with recovery plans for all threatened fish stocks."