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WORLD-wide legislators are looking at proposals to establish huge fishing no-go areas to save vulnerable stocks from collapse.
This is one of the ideas emanating from a major conference in London this week attended by fishery experts and MPs from some of the world's most important fishing countries.
The so called no-go areas would be similar to the marine protection zones now being established around the UK coastline, but on a vaster scale.
The conference is organised by an environmental group for MPs and their equivalent called Globe. Many European MPs fear that unless drastic action is taken in the next few years some fisheries will collapse entirely because of the pressure on fishermen to feed a hungry world.
However, some of the doomsday scenario is being challenged and critics point to improving cod stocks in many northern hemisphere waters such as the Barents Sea and Iceland.
Even the North Sea is showing significant signs of improvement. On the other hand the continuing dispute over the threatened blue fin tuna stocks where there have been clashes between fishermen and the authorities highlights the other side of the argument.
Environmentalists says the real fishing pirates are not Somali raiders in the Indian ocean, but companies and countries who ruthlessly exploit fish stocks.
Globe says their conference is the first step towards achieving international consensus and highly protected marine reserves is the best way of doing this. The MPs are expected to return to their respective counties to develop plans for new fish protection laws. It is almost certain that the conference will have some influence on plans to reshape the European Common Fisheries Policy when it is redrawn in the next year or two.
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