has ended in defeat.

But he vowed yesterday to keep fighting against what he termed "a heinous political decision''.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, headed by Lord Mustill, yesterday rejected Farias' petition to appeal to Bermuda's highest court.

Farias was going to appeal a Bermuda Court of Appeal ruling that the fish pot ban did not flout the Bermuda Constitution.

The decision by Lord Mustill and his panel has now exhausted Farias' avenues for fighting a $2,000 fine meted out to him in Magistrates' Court in 1991 after he was convicted of possessing and using fish pots two months after the Environment Ministry's then controversial ban.

"It was his final appeal,'' acting Attorney General Mr. Barrie Meade said yesterday after confirming a Privy Council hearing had been denied. But Farias said: "If it's all been turned down I will talk harsher about this system we are living under.'' Former Environment Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright Decouto had made an "irresponsible'' decision, he insisted, and his case would "never rest''.

Farias' appeal against the Government ban on fish pots was thrown out by the Bermuda Court of Appeal last November.

His lawyers, Mr. Arthur Hodgson and a British QC, had argued the March, 1990 ban was unconstitutional.

But Mr. Michael Tugendhat, QC, who represented Bermuda at yesterday's hearing, had argued Farias' defiance of the fish pot ban was a personal gesture.

Farias, who has been a fisherman for 40 years, first appealed the Magistrates' Court conviction to the Supreme Court on similar grounds.

DANNY FARIAS -- Lost his long legal battle.