EU fisharies policy

There's an interesting article by Charles Clover in today's Daily Telegraph about the latest EU fisharies policy. Charles Clover wrote an excellent, but depressing, book about the state of global fishing called "The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and what We Eat" which I read a couple of years back and I keep an eye out for his articles.

Here what he says today:

- EU voted to allow fishing of endangered bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic at twice the quota level scientists say will lead to a collapse of stocks.

- Britain and Ireland voted against and were unhappy that Italy and France who are estimated to have overfished their quotas by 30% in the last two years were not forced to pay this back.

- French and Itailian fishermen are using illegal drift nets to catch tuna. Drift net fishing can lead to the death of dolphins and turtles.

- According to the WWF, the fisheries should be closed in June and the minimum landing size reduced to 30kg.

So after the razzamatazz of the Global warming spectacular last week at the G8, the EU is back to the dirty business of petty national advantage being considered more important than the long term survival and viability of our fisheries.