Anger at Wasteful Common Fisheries Policy

A Belgian fishing boat on Wednesday presented a pile of discarded fish to environment organization Greenpeace to demonstrate the "wasteful" common fisheries policy. After each fishing expedition, bycatch, as it is officially known, results in thousands of dead or dying fish being thrown back into the water because they exceed allotted quotas, are too small, or from the wrong species. In all, an estimated 720,000 tons of waste fish and other creatures are discarded annually in the North Sea, Greenpeace said. "A fishing policy that leads to such an enormous waste of fish and other species is a policy that needs to be rapidly abandoned if we are to protect the North Sea and the marine life it supports," said Greenpeace's oceans campaigner, Oliver Knowles. "Fishing needs to be sustainable wherever it takes place if we are not to empty the oceans of fish and other marine life." (EUobserver.com)