FISHERMEN have been thrown a lifeline and will not have to stick to strict quotas, as part of a study into the environmental impact of fishing boats.

There are calls for the Government project, which includes Hartlepool, to be extended along other stretches of coastline where fishermen are struggling for survival.

As an incentive for taking part in the £280,000 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) study, smaller boats will be permitted to sell all the fish they catch, instead of being restricted by quotas.

The study aims to measure the environmental impact of commercial boats fishing within 12 nautical miles of the coast. A total of 30 boats in Hartlepool, Lowestoft, in Suffolk, and the Thames Estuary will take part in the 12-month pilot scheme starting later in the summer.

They will be able to fish freely for 15 days a month and the boats will be fitted with monitoring equipment.

Fishermen hope it will result in permanent lifting of the quotas, which they say are crippling their livelihoods.

Hartlepool fisherman Phillip Walsh said: "The whole fishing industry is at meltdown point.

"We need to be able to land and market everything we catch to make the business viable. Boats under ten metres should not be in the quota system, we should be on a days-on regime of 180 days a year. If this study is what it takes for the Government and Defra to realise, then so be it.

"Hopefully, after 12 months we don't go back to where we are now, which is at the point of bankruptcy for the whole fleet."

Defra announced the scheme in a bid to produce a clearer picture of the inshore fishing industry. A spokesman said the Government was in the process of signing up boats under 10m (33ft), from the selected areas.

At present, inshore fishermen can catch only 100kg of cod and 100kg of plaice a month, and have to dump large quantities of banned catches, such as whiting, overboard.

Fred Normandale, a fisherman from Scarborough, said: "With a ban on catching whiting, not much cod - and fuel prices going through the roof - there is no hope at present for survival of the few remaining boats here. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that it will be rolled out here too."