PIRATE fishing ships are devastating populations of fish and seabirds in Antarctic waters. Fish destined for the table, like the boatload of Patagonian toothfish intercepted last month, are only part of the problem. Illegal catches of krill are also putting a wide range of sea life in peril (快猫短视频, 26 July, p 10). I asked ministers at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) to what extent the UK recognises this problem.
The gist of their replies was that the main task facing the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is to combat the increase in illegal and unregulated fishing for which no records are kept. The CCAMLR has introduced tough port inspections and controls, including obligations on nations not to flag, license or allow landing of imports from non-listed vessels. The UK and other signatories to the Antarctic Treaty are putting pressure on states whose vessels operate in the Antarctic to control their fishing activities.
Unfortunately, krill fishing in the Southern Ocean remains relatively unregulated. Total allowable catches are set and fishing nations are obliged to submit records of catches. But krill fishing can be conducted without on-board observers or vessel monitoring systems. As global demand grows and protein sources diminish there will be ever-increasing pressure on Southern Ocean krill stocks. The FCO ministers claim that the CCAMLR keeps a close eye on trends in the fishery, and add that action will be taken if the krill fishery comes under pressure. I hope this is more than just wishful thinking.
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THE announcement that Sellafield鈥檚 Thorp nuclear reprocessing operation is to be closed in 2010 may have stirred up some anti-nuclear sentiments. Yet I sense opinion in the Labour party swinging towards nuclear energy rather than away from it. This follows from a realisation that the UK鈥檚 oil and gas supplies are far from infinite, the hydrogen economy is still a long way off, and global warming threatens us all. This summer saw record temperatures in many parts of the country, and few things change political attitudes more rapidly than personal experience.
I was greatly impressed by a recent commentary on the Department of Trade and Industry鈥檚 2003 energy White Paper. Malcolm Grimston of Imperial College London has prepared Our Energy Future 鈥� Creating a low-carbon economy for the lobby group Trade Unionists for Safe Nuclear Energy. In it, Grimston points out that the UK鈥檚 self-sufficiency in energy will not last for ever. On cold days, the country is already a net importer of gas, and it is unlikely to be able to meet its net gas demand from domestic sources come 2006.
We should reflect that the UK might one day have to be at the end of long gas pipelines from the former Soviet Union or the Middle East, he says, leaving supplies vulnerable to disruption.
This excellent critical commentary should be widely read, and not just by Labour supporters.
