By Tamsin Smith BBC News reporter in Wladyslawovo, Poland

Fisherman Golla will be paid by Brussels to scrap his boat

Polish fishermen are about to receive 280m euros (�191m; $344m) under the European Union's new fisheries deal agreed last year.

The aim is to give incentives towards scrapping vessels and retraining fishermen.

The hope is that the controversial Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) could reverse declining fish stocks in the Baltic, but not everyone is convinced it will.

Cash for scrap

Wladyslawovo in northern Poland is one of the Baltic's biggest fishing harbours.

Environmentalist Daczka: 'The fishermen just keep on fishing'

The fleet of boats limping into port has seen better days.

Once Poland was one of the world's major fishing nations. Now it is a sinking industry with too many boats and not enough fish.

Fisherman Aloyzy Golla invites us on board his 43-year-old trawler. It's hard to tell where the orange paint ends and the rust begins.

He has jumped at the offer of cash from Brussels to scrap his boat.

"I'm going to get 210,000 euros for my boat. I plan to take this opportunity although I thought about it hard first. I've had loads of problems with my boats engine and with the crew."

Management of fishermen

Mr Golla already knows what he will do with the money given to him.

Many fishermen could soon be hanging up their nets

"I've started investing in a small hotel which will provide an income for my family, but I'm sad to leave the sea behind. It has been my life."

"There are substantial funds to allow proper compensation for the scrapping of vessels," says Steve Karnecki, science director of the government's sea fisheries institute.

"It is very fair and of great importance at the beginning of our EU membership.

"Our masters in Brussels have to remember that management of resources also means management of fishermen."

Unchanged quota

Fishermen lifting crates of fish off the deck onto lorries on the dockside could soon be hanging up their nets thanks to the EU.

Fishermen who choose to remain at work will not go hungry

"Loads of us are thinking about taking the money," says one man clambering off his boat.

But fishermen who choose to remain at work will not go hungry. It looks like they will get a bigger slice of Poland's fishing quota which is still unchanged under the CFP.

No respite, then, for endangered Baltic cod stocks.

Freshwater fish

At Gdenia's bustling and rather pungent fish market, cod is favourite with most Polish shoppers.

Cod is favourite with most shoppers

"The situation in the Baltic is very bad," says Anna Daczka from the environmental organisation WWF Poland, worried to see so much on sale.

"Our scientific data points to the threat of collapse of cod stocks, but the fishermen just keep on fishing."

Ten per cent of Poland's handout from the EU is aimed at replenishing fish stocks, but this will mainly be spent on freshwater fish - despite the intentions of the CFP to reverse the decline in cod.

Natural phenomenon

It seems cod stocks cannot be saved by Brussels bureaucrats.

"We can only pray," says Steve Karnecki who admits that only nature has the answer.

"If we get a big inflow of water from the North Sea or from the Atlantic, there's a great chance that in a quick period the status of the cod stocks will improve, but we dont know when or why.

"It is a natural phenomenen over which we have no control whatsoever."