Trawlers in age of sail able to catch 17 times more fish

But when the report authors pointed to the findings as further evidence of declining fishing stocks yesterday they drew a broadside from national fishing leader Fred Normandale.

The academics teamed up with the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) to compare Government data on the amount of fish caught and the size and number of boats involved – the fleet's fishing power – to analyse the change in fish stocks since 1889.

They found that trawl fish landings peaked in 1937, 14 times higher than today, and the availability of bottom-living fish to the fleet fell by 94 per cent.

Prof Callum Roberts, from the University's Environment Department, said: "This research makes clear that the state of UK bottom fisheries – and by implication European fisheries, since the fishing grounds are shared – is far worse than even the most pessimistic of assessments currently in circulation.

"European fish stock assessments, and the management targets based on them, go back only 20 to 40 years. These results should supply an important corrective to the short-termism inherent in fisheries management today."

However, Mr Normandale, Scarborough skipper and Chairman of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, was outraged at the claims.

He said: "I think it appalling that all these people have all these statistics but have never been around the pier end. We only have a quarter of the fleet we had 20 years ago. The landings were huge 20 years ago because we had four times as many boats then.

"We are surrounded by experts and it is experts that have totally ruined our industry.

"We are starving in a sea of plenty. We are dumping more fish than we allowed to keep. We are limited to the number of days we can fish, mesh size and quota.

"We are importing fish continually and are allowed to land less and less so fish is coming from unregulated sources rather than our stocks which are healthy."

The authors of the study, using previously overlooked records, maintain it shows the decline in stocks is far more profound than previously thought.

Ruth Thurstan, lead author of the study, said: "For all its technological sophistication and raw power, today's trawl fishing fleet has far less success than its sail-powered equivalent of the late 19th century because of the sharp declines in fish abundance."

Simon Brockington, head of Conservation at the Marine Conservation Society, said: "Over a century of intensive trawl fishing has severely depleted UK seas of bottom living fish like halibut, turbot, haddock and plaice."