A FORMER fisherman has taken to sea to highlight the ailing industry's plight.

Dave Horsley, 60, of Hartlepool, is sailing down the North-East coast as part of a national protest against the decline in Britain's fishing fleet.

Mr Horsley, who retired two years ago, said: "I would still be a fisherman now, but the stress of the bureaucratic clap-trap I had to deal with sickened me."

The protest aims to draw attention to the industry's plight in the face of the decommissioning of trawlers and reduced EU fishing quotas.

Setting off from Tyneside's Millennium Bridge on Saturday, he called at Sunderland yesterday and will arrive in Hartlepool today.

His journey, in his 38ft boat, the Super S, will also take in Whitby and Scarborough, in North Yorkshire.

At the same time, another vessel will travel from Cornwall up the west coast. The two will meet on the River Thames on the anniversary of D-Day, June 6.

Mr Horsley, a former member of the North-East Sea Fisheries Committee, said: "We are always being told that the fisherman is to blame and I am sick of being treated like a leper."

He is being joined on part of his journey by Piers Merchant, the UK Independence Party's North-East candidate in the Euro elections.