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Dear Sir/Madam
We have come to a situation that needs your urgent and vital consideration:-
THE MANAGEMENT OF THE SEAS
In February 2000 about 400 dolphins were washed up on French beaches. Thousands more were probably also killed but not seen because dead dolphins sink to the seabed.
According to the press reports, including (The Times 20 February 2000), this dolphin destruction was caused by French and Spanish trawlers dragging enormous, funnel-shaped nets, which can be 100 metres wide at the mouth, in their hunt for pelagic fishes such as herring. Huge trawlers work in pairs towing nets large enough to hold 12 jumbo jets (The Times 23 March 2000) nothing escapes these giant jaws of death. Among their victims are the air breathing dolphins, who, once trapped, die of stress and asphyxiation.
The fishermen admit that diminishing fish stocks are pushing them to use ever more sophisticated and powerful methods for capturing their prey.
According to The Times, Fabien Dulon, head of the Trawlermen's Co-operative at La Rochelle, said, "The solution would be a two year moratorium - but who would pay us to sit around and do nothing?"
In a world driven by economic productivity, consumerism and a need for jobs I can easily understand his predicament. We also live in a diet conscious age. Television chefs like Delia Smith extol the virtues and the deliciousness of fish dishes. So the pressure is on fishermen to catch more and more from fish stocks that are rapidly getting less and less. With that kind of pressure the problem is not going to go away. It is going to get worse. And it will affect each and every one of us.
The Centre for Research on Marine Mammals of la Rochelle predicts that if this method of fishing is not changed, dolphins face extinction in the North Atlantic in the next 20 years. The Times (20 February 2000).
THIS CANNOT AND MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN
Another huge pressure on the sea is the capture of prodigious quantities of fish, such as sand eels and anchovies, for conversion into fish meal for feeding livestock. From an ecological standpoint this is an outrageous abuse of the sea - when there is an overproduction of food on the land in Europe.
So what are we going to do about it?
Fishermen already have quotas which limit the number and type of fish they can catch lawfully. If we have to stop them fishing altogether in some areas to allow fish stocks to recover, then we must compensate them. A precedent has already been set with "set-aside" in which farmers are paid to leave land fallow, because of overproduction.
In the International Dolphin Watch (IDW) Journal DOLPHIN (April 2000) the honorary Director Dr. Horace Dobbs (an Internationally recognised expert on Dolphin Conservation and author of many books and films), has proposed a solution that will turn this negative into a positive situation. It is to offer the fishermen the chance to become fish farmers, who feed their stock on land produced food of which we have an excess, thereby creating new jobs for those who become redundant.
Dr Dobbs has a further suggestion. It is that there should be an immediate investigation into the feasibility and economics of setting up WORM PRODUCTION UNITS. These can vary in size from back garden units to factory farms which convert waste organic matter to animal protein that can be used to feed fish and land animals.
There will be technical problems to resolve of course, but none of greater magnitude than those already resolved by the land farmers who have successfully turned food production into profitable, ecologically sound, sustainable businesses.
The measures suggested will take the pressure off the seas and give them a chance to recover and return to a situation where fish for direct human consumption can be extracted on a substantial basis. At the same time, the diversity and richness of all creatures directly dependant upon the sea for survival - such as seals, sea birds and cetaceans (including dolphins) - will be maintained.
Nobody wants the seas to become barren - they are our heritage.
I therefore implore you to do your utmost to bring about changes in the law that will
SAFEGUARD THE SEAS
I am sure that the proposed strategy will appeal to the common sense of the general public and will WIN VOTES.
PLEASE PLEASE HELP
Thank you
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