Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing calls to follow through on his pledge to ban EU supertrawlers which regularly plunder UK waters. These calls are coming in a petition which has already attracted more than 42,000 signatures.
Foreign supertrawlers are still regular visitors to UK waters. Whilst they are not currently operating illegally, environmentalists often blame them for the deaths of dolphins and other marine wildlife. The Prime Minister spoke on BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday, he said that Brexit meant the UK “will be able to ban these huge hoover trawlers that come in and hoover up everything off the bottom of the sea”.
A petition has now been started by a gentleman named Robert Read. The petition states: “We request that the Government proposes a ban on supertrawlers from UK waters after the UK becomes an Independent sic Coastal State and is no longer restricted by the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) which allowed these huge vessels to decimate fish stocks and endanger marine ecosystems and species”.
It goes on to say: “Supertrawlers are factory sized fishing vessels over 100m which trail nets mile-long catching thousands of tonnes of fish including bycatch and protected species including cetaceans. Foreign-owned supertrawlers are regularly decimating the UK’s fish stocks and endanger protected marine species”.
The petition, which runs until the 23rd of March had amassed 42,024 signatures as of 8.30am this morning. Having passed the 10,000 mark, the Government will now be required to respond. Should it hit 100,000, the matter will have to be debated in the House of Commons.
The link can be found below and UNN’s Oliver Down will keep you up to date on the progress of the petition.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/550730
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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