FISHERMEN will be banned from using huge "wall of death" drift nets, which are blamed for killing thousands of dolphins, under plans to be announced by the Government today.
Elliot Morley, fisheries minister, will announce at a meeting of EU fisheries ministers in Luxembourg that Britain will use its presidency of the EU from Jan 1 to broker a deal to outlaw the nets, which are used by British, French and Irish fishermen to catch tuna in the Bay of Biscay and other parts of the Atlantic.
"We have decided to bite the bullet on this issue. We have evidence that too many dolphins, sharks and other marine species are being killed in them," he said last night.
The Government will almost certainly succeed in banning the nets despite strong opposition from French fishermen who are the biggest users of them in the Bay of Biscay. Spain, the EU's largest fishing nation, has pressed for a ban for years and Italy has stopped its fishermen using them in return for compensation.
Use of the nets by British, French and Irish fishermen sparked a fish war in the Bay of Biscay in 1994 when several Cornish fishing boats had their nets cut away by Spanish vessels. The Spanish use poles and lines with hooks but can catch only about 200 tuna a day - five times less than vessels using nets.
Spanish fishermen were furious because a glut of tuna had depressed prices.
The Government move will hurt Cornish fishermen who invested heavily in pounds 30,000 monofilament drift nets to hunt tuna after tightening EU quotas drove them out of home waters. British vessels use nets fitted with "doors" intended to allow dolphins and sharks to escape, but Mr Morley said dolphins were still caught in such nets.
Mike Townsend, chairman of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, said: "We will be seeking compensation for fishermen who have invested heavily in this equipment." (1997 (c) The Telegraph plc, London)
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