This Is Kent
11:52 - 17-November-2008
AN EX-COUNCIL worker from Margate is campaigning to change the way fishing industries operate.
Brian Smith-Stewart, known as a Marine Conservation Society (MCS) sea champion, has pledged his support for a new marine bill and is attempting to rally local backingsupport for dramatic changes to the way we fish.
Like the MCS, Brian believes that English waters are so over-fished. so much so, if things stay as they are there, there will be little left to fish.
The 64-year-old said: "We need more protected areas in English waters. By 2049, we will have nothing left to fish. In a single human lifetime we have inflicted a crisis on the oceans greater than any yet caused by pollution. That crisis compares with the destruction of mammoths, bison, whales and the rape of the rainforests."
Last week on the 25th anniversary of the MCS, Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed that the Government is preparing the long-awaited Marine Bill.
This follows ongoing campaigning by various wildlife organisations MCS, RSPB, WWF and the Wildlife Trusts including full page advertisements in national newspapers. rallying support for the Marine Bill.
MCS senior policy officer Melissa Moore said: "The Marine Bill is vital to enable the designation of Marine Conservation Zones to protect nationally important wildlife such as pink sea fans, eel grass beds, seahorse, maerl and basking sharks. At present less than 0.001 per cent of our seas are highly protected from damaging activities."
According to marine research in 2008, only eight fish stocks around the British Isles out of a total of 47 studied are known to be in a healthy state.
Professor Callum Roberts of the University of York states in a Silence Seas report: "Big fish produce many times more offspring than small ones so they are vital to sustaining healthy populations in the sea. There is little chance of recovery while most fish get taken before they have had time to reproduce."
MCS is calling to shift away from current quota-based methods used by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to restrictions on licences, days at sea, fishing gear types and size and engine power. They also want to extend protection zones for to protect biological areas such as spawning, nursery grounds and delicate seafloor habitats.
Mr Smith-Stewart added: "I sympathise with local fisherman as they are already under enormous pressure but there has to be another way."
For more information on MCS or the Marine Bill visit www.mcsuk.org/.