World must reel in overfishing, warns Sir David Attenborough

Television naturalist Sir David Attenborough has called for a global deal to tackle overfishing as he warned of three major challenges facing the world’s oceans.

The veteran presenter, whose new series Blue Planet II looks at sea life, said climate change and pollution were also having an impact.

Sir David said an agreement similar to that which outlawed most whale hunting was needed to prevent fish stocks being depleted.

Action could also be taken to combat the dumping of pollutants including plastic, but there was little that individuals could do to prevent the rise in sea temperatures.

“The sea is being hit in three different ways,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“There’s nothing which we, or anybody listening to this, can do much about the raising of the temperature because the die is already cast.

“But we can do something about what we tip into the sea – there are some tragic stories to be told as to the effect this is having, not only to the creatures that live in the sea, but by the sea.”

He highlighted the plight of albatross chicks which were sometimes left starving as a result of their parents collecting plastic instead of food.

Their parents “come back after flying for a week with crops of what they think is food and it turns out to be plastic”.

“The poor chick has been waiting there for days for food and is given nothing. That’s a very dramatic example but that sort of thing applies throughout the ocean.”

On overfishing, he said: “What you need is international agreements to deal with that.”

Sir David Attenborough warned of major challenges facing the oceans.