Pulse fishing ‘making sea a graveyard’
BRITISH fishermen fear parts of the North Sea are being turned into a “graveyard” by trawlers catching fish with electric shocks.
Foreign trawlers are using the “electric pulse” method of firing shocks into the seabed to drive sole and plaice into nets.
But it is claimed they are also wiping out species such as cod and bass.
British fisherman have told researchers: “It’s like fishing in a graveyard after the pulse trawlers – virtually everything is dead.”
Fisheries minister George Eustice has now told government scientists to investigate pulse fishing.
About 100 boats, mostly Dutch-owned, are using the method on a test basis.
The European Parliament is to vote on whether to lift a general ban.