MEALY-MOUTHED advice from scientists is providing politicians with excuses for their failure to save the world鈥檚 fisheries, according to a report released by the House of Lords this week. It urges researchers to 鈥済ive much firmer advice in a form which the political managers could not ignore鈥�.
In its report on world fish stocks, the Lords science and technology committee condemns the failure of European fisheries ministers at a meeting in Brussels in December to make the cuts in catches recommended by scientists.
At the time, British fisheries minister Tony Baldry claimed that he had 鈥渟ecured the best possible deal for British fishermen consistent with the science and the conservation of stocks鈥�. Lord Selborne, chairman of the Lords committee, told New 杏吧原创: 鈥淭his was like Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich with his piece of paper 鈥� a short-term fix leading to longterm suicide.鈥�
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The chief scientific culprits, says Selborne, are the government fisheries biologists who make up the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). It is their job to advise governments and other bodies, including the European Commission, on fisheries management, but they seem unable to get their message across to the politicians, he says. In evidence to the committee, John Shepherd, director of the Southampton Oceanography Centre, criticised the ICES for producing 鈥渉eavily qualified鈥� advice. It should be 鈥渂lunter and bolder鈥�, he said.
鈥溞影稍磗 will always want to draw attention to any uncertainty in their assessment,鈥� says the Lords鈥� report. 鈥淏ut scientific professionalism is currently providing an excuse for political compromise.鈥�
In evidence, Michael Holden, a former chief fisheries adviser to the British government who has since died, attacked the monopolistic role of the ICES in providing advice to governments as 鈥渦nscientific鈥�. He partly blamed the ICES鈥檚 underestimates of fish death rates for the recent collapse of Canada鈥檚 fish catches. The next victim could be North Sea cod. The number of spawning cod is down to just 5 per cent of the figure 20 years ago.
Selborne鈥檚 committee also attacks the weakness of some current fisheries research. Data on fish stocks are often poor: of the 103 species for which the EU sets fishing quotas, there are 鈥渟ufficient scientific data鈥� to set a safe catch for only 39 species. Even so, this ignorance cannot disguise the crisis facing the world鈥檚 fisheries, say the Lords. Fish stocks have crashed off the Canadian Grand Banks, in the Black Sea and on Georges Bank off New England.
The Lords condemn the paltry amount spent by the British government on fisheries research. At 拢19 million a year, it is less than 4 per cent of the 拢500 million value of fish landed by British vessels. But some witnesses to the inquiry doubted whether better scientific data would make much difference. 鈥淭he fundamental problem,鈥� said Holden, 鈥渋s not the adequacy of the scientific methods and data, but the lack of political will to act upon the available knowledge.鈥�
