The Island's "hard-up'' fishermen last night hashed out mounting tensions over the state of the fishing industry. They want to get Government back to the table "to discuss a traditional fishing industry using traditional fish pots'', Bermuda Industrial Union Fisheries Division president Mr. Danny Farias said yesterday. Mr. Farias this week lost his long legal battle against the 1990 fish pot ban, which he argued was unconstitutional. The Privy Council in London refused to hear his appeal, which had been thrown out by the Bermuda Court of Appeal. But Mr. Farias is vowing to continue his fight against a ban which "deprived'' hundreds of Bermudians of their way of life. Mr. Farias and divisional secretary Mr. Alan Bean called the meeting of all fishermen at BIU headquarters last night to discuss "matters of importance''. One of the issues up for discussion was the special pots fishermen were allowed to use in the lobster season, he said. Those pots were "death traps'', he charged.

While the lobster-only pots were letting fish escape through their larger funnels, they were allowing in octopuses and other predator fish which were killing the lobsters, he said.