Paul Joy and Graeme Bossom are planning to appeal the judgement

Paul Joy, 55, and Graeme Bossom, 41, both from Hastings, admitted breaching the 1967 Sea Fish Conservation Act.

Lewes Crown Court heard they had been restricted to catching 150 kilos of cod in October 2003, but actually netted 1,973 kilos valued at �2,570.

Joy was fined �4,996, while Bossom was fined �4,074. Both were ordered to pay �2,500 costs each.

As far as I'm concerned all I went out there to do was to try and earn a living Paul Joy

The court was told that Joy, of Ashburnham Road, and Bossom, of Edmund Road, had claimed the quota rules did not apply to small inshore under-10 metre boats, such as theirs.

Sentencing them, Judge Simon Coltart said he was satisfied they both knew exactly what they were doing and had chosen to ignore the limit.

After the hearing Joy, who is the chairman of the Hastings Fishermen's Protection Society, said the sentence served as a warning not to take on the government.

He claimed they had been discriminated against because they were British fishermen.

"I think we've done no wrong. As far as I'm concerned all I went out there to do was to try and earn a living," he said.

But Angus Radford, Inspector of Fisheries at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it was important to "send a signal" to those fishermen who did not comply with the conditions of their licence and penalise them for the benefit of those who had complied.

Joy and Bossom said after the hearing on Tuesday that they could not pay the fine and were hoping to appeal.