Sea Change Needed to Preserve Fish Stocks ; Letters

Summary

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On Wednesday, May 26, I was greatly saddened and alarmed to read in the WMN of the declining cod stocks in the angling article by Mike Millman. We also appear to have yet another case in front of the courts regarding alleged illegal fishing by a local skipper. What on earth is going on? Over-fishing has been a problem for some years - remember the "Cod War" with Iceland? Remember Ted Heath telling us that the ending of our 12-mile exclusion zone was a "small price to pay" for joining the EEC? Some small price!

The Common Fisheries Policy has been absolutely disastrous for our fish stocks. It has been absolutely disastrous for our fishing fleet and all of the people who work(ed) in it. But if you think that we have it bad, then just consider the following gems gleaned from an IPS article. The EU have been subsidising firms that are guilty of fishing illegally in African waters. Not content with raping British fish stocks, the EU now pays approximately one billion euro per annum to companies that are known to flout international law and fishing agreements. "The fact that the EU pays subsidies to vessels fishing in African waters is already a problem because, by doing so, European taxpayers are exacerbating poor African people's difficulty to sustain livelihoods" is what Isabella Loevin of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee is quoted as saying. She added: "But that the subsidies go to European vessels violating international law is highly embarrassing and immoral". I would agree with her - it is immoral to steal other people's food, particularly when those people live in a poor nation that cannot fight back. Perhaps now folk will understand why Angolans are landing on Lanzarote at the rate of 1,000 per week? In a study recently carried out by Fishsubsidy.org, a London-based watchdog group, records of 42 court convictions of vessels receiving EU subsidies were compared. The study focussed on Spain and France - two major recipients of EU fishing subsidies. Vessels were caught violating either national or international laws on fishing in the east central Atlantic Ocean region in African waters. One Spanish company that received at least 2.8 million euro in subsidies was caught in 2004 with 24 tonnes of illegally-fished Patagonian Toothfish. The problem of illegal fishing appears to be worldwide. This issue was raised many times by Nigel Farage of UKIP when he was a member of the EP Fisheries Committee - but his words fell on deaf ears and absolutely nothing has been done to alleviate the problem. Even the European Parliament's legal department has concluded that fishing vessels operating under European flags in Western Sahara waters violate international law.

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Sea Change Needed to Preserve Fish Stocks ; Letters

The founder of Fishsubsidy.org has st...

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