But hot foot from the annual meeting of the international whaling conference I was faced with the question about what to do about the dead dolphins that are washed up round Devon and Cornwall each year.
While dolphins can and do get caught in a number of sorts of fishing nets the main cause in our region is thought to be the bass pair trawlers that operate during the winter months in the English Channel. Huge nets are towed between a pair of trawlers enveloping a maximum number of the sort after bass. But a lot of dolphins that feed on the bass are being caught to.
It was thought that there might be a technical solution to the problem. A separator grid in the mouth of the net that would allow the bass though into the net while directing the dolphins though an escape flat. But this year more than 160 dolphins were caught despite the grids being used so I decided to ask the EU Commission to close this fishery. The reason EU action is necessary is that most of the pair trawlers are French and fish outside UK waters.
Achieving a closure will be easier said than done. The French fishermen and their government will probably oppose it. But I hope Britain�s move will at least force other countries to take the issue seriously.
We have no power to stop the pair trawling outside our 12 mile limit. But we have the evidence and the arguments to make a good case. If we cannot persuade others we are prepared to take unilateral action in our own waters, which will have a limited, but at least some, impact.
Apart from the dolphins the other main beneficiaries will be sea anglers who have complained for a while about the size and numbers of bass to be caught off our coast and who make an enormous contribution to our regions economy.
