THE health of fish stocks is not exactly box-office material. And it鈥檚 unlikely to become a big story until the likes of cod and sole disappear from the menu. Sadly, in Europe, this is getting too close for comfort. Most of the continent鈥檚 fish stocks are shockingly depleted, some close to collapse.
Part of the reason for this is that politicians who represent fishing communities persistently ignore the scientists鈥� pleas to limit fishing so that stocks can recover. To end this parochial, short-term thinking, the European Commission now plans to hand control of fisheries to committees of faceless bureaucrats, closely advised by scientists (see 鈥淔ish out the politicians鈥�). But the scientists are worried. They fear that their scientific judgement will become tainted by politics if they have to make policy themselves. They have a point. Take a look at Japanese whaling or Canadian sealing, where many think science has been distorted to prop up otherwise questionable commercial hunting. One of the jobs of the bureaucrats must be to keep political pressure off the scientists.
But provided this happens, scientists should embrace the opportunity. Particularly since a second proposal from Brussels is to pour more money into monitoring stocks and their biology. With this kind of back-up, the scientists鈥� predictions should be reliable enough to dissuade even the most ambitious politician from putting narrow national interests ahead of the survival of Europe鈥檚 fish.
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