DEPARTMENT FOR
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (168/07) issued by
The Government News Network on 11 June 2007
Britain has called
on the European Commission to take urgent action to stop the use
of illegal fishing nets in the Mediterranean that are decimating
endangered bluefin tuna and responsible for indiscriminate
slaughter of dolphins and turtles.
Driftnets have been banned in the EU since 2002 but there are
regular reports of Italian and French vessels ignoring the ban.
Recently a boat owned by marine conservationists Oceana, which
was monitoring illegal activity, was attacked by a group of
driftnetters off the coast of Southern France.
UK Fisheries Ministers Ben Bradshaw today (11 June) told a
meeting of
fellow Ministers in Luxembourg that the UK was
"very disturbed"
by the reports and asked that the
Commission take urgent and decisive action to ensure the driftnet
ban was enforced and complied with.
Earlier, the UK voted against long awaited proposals to protect
bluefin tuna stocks in the Mediterranean, saying they were not
tough enough.
The UK and Ireland were also unhappy that EU rules requiring any
overfished stock to be paid back in future are not being
implemented for tuna but are being implemented for UK and Irish
overfishing of mackerel which are not under threat.
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