Michael Gove’s plan does not
oblige fishing industry to eliminate bycatch, where boats accidentally net sea
species
Sun 22 Jul 2018 06.00 BST
Protection for dolphins and
seabirds will be weaker under government plans for Brexit than
if Britain stayed in the EU, according to a new analysis by environmental
groups.
Under the EU’s Seabird Plan of
Action, the fishing industry is obliged to eliminate “bycatch”, where boats
accidentally catch seabirds, dolphins and other species. Under laws set out in
environment secretary Michael Gove’s white paper on fisheries, they would need
only to implement “practical and effective risk-based mitigation”.
An analysis by Greener UK, which represents 13
major organisations including the RSPB and WWF, welcomed ministers’ commitments
to sustainable fishing and a pledge to consider fish stocks as a public asset.
But it said the details in the white paper fell short of the government’s
ambitions.
More than 300,000 whales,
dolphins, porpoises and other cetaceans and 300,000 birds die worldwide every
year by getting trapped in fishing nets. UK fishing fleets are among the best
at avoiding bycatch, which may put them at a competitive disadvantage against
those from other member states which do not take the rules as seriously.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!