Fishing restrictions plea to protect UK marine life

Fishing should be banned in almost a third of UK waters to protect the marine environment and save threatened fish species, according to a major report today.

Sir Tom Blundell, chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, says we should treat the sea as we do endangered land habitats. "Currently fishing is allowed unless there is clear evidence of damage. This needs to change," he said.

"We need to take positive steps to allow the environment to recover. Marine reserves should be created to protect 30 per cent of the UK's seas from fishing. Intervention on this scale is necessary to preserve important eco-systems and to break the present cycle of unrealistic quotas and diminishing fish populations. Similar measures are also needed across Europe." Sir Tom added: "It is hard to imagine that we would tolerate a similar scale of destruction on land but because it happens at sea, the damage is largely hidden."

The commission's report proposes a range of protection measures, including a ban on deep-sea fishing, arguing that deep-sea fish are particularly at risk.