“If you are a fisheries minister you sit around the table arguing about fishermen—not about fish. You’re there to represent your fishermen. You’re there to ensure that if there are ten fish you get your share and if possible a bit more. The arguments aren’t about conservation, unless of course you are arguing about another country”

Rt Hon John Gummer, formerly UK Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1989-93) and Secretary of State for the Environment (1993-97).

This quote is from Fishing News 18 December 1998 and can be found online in a NIA research paper from 2001. The quote is also found in a new research paper (O’Leary et al 2011) published recently in Marine Pollution Bulletin, which finds that EU ministers on average adjusted TACs to be 33 per cent higher than recommended by fisheries scientists.

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