Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Fishing communities helped win the Brexit vote, letting the UK take back control of coastal waters. A legal challenge lodged last week by a marine conservation charity challenges that idea, arguing that the latest quotas granted by the government go beyond scientific advice for around 60 per cent of fish stocks. The post-Brexit Fishing Act was meant to create a “sustainable, profitable” fishing industry and let marine habitats thrive. The Blue Marine Foundation claims, in a case due to come to trial between July and September, that in reality the government’s actions will lead to the depletion of key species including mackerel and monkfish. Separately the foundation has sided with the UK (and against Sweden and Denmark) on its closure of Dogger Bank in the North Sea to end sand eel fishing. Bottom line: unless you want extinctions and expensive fish, fish less.