mr president it is good that the eu is trying to preserve endangered fish stocks but before there is too much self-congratulation on these proposals we must remember that many past eu fishing rules have been appalling failures
britain's home waters have been fished to near extinction under european fisheries policies
the reality is that the protection of fish stocks is best left to local fishermen and national government marine scientists not eu bureaucrats
the advice from the men working in the broken remnants of britain's fishing fleets is simple scrap quota systems which lead to discards and high grading and replace them with weight-based catch limits so that all fish caught are landed for human consumption or for processing into animal and fish feed
we need to replace the system of openly tradeable quotas and so stop financiers supermarkets and the super rich from speculating in fishermen's livelihoods
quotas of all kinds and in whichever seas should be owned by fishermen from ports with traditional connections to those waters and be tradeable only between fishermen who are likewise entitled to fish by personal family and community connections
