Dolphin campaign goes to Brussels

Candy Atherton says she is taking the fight to the heart of Europe

The campaign to prevent dolphin deaths off the coast of Devon and Cornwall is continuing, as a Cornish MP takes the fight to Europe.

Candy Atherton is part of a Defra committee which will try to change the European Commission's decision not to ban pair trawling.

The Commission said the scientific data presented by the UK Government did not justify an immediate ban.

But Ms Atherton says the fishery should be closed.

Pair trawling, where a large net is attached to two boats and trawled through the water, is blamed for thousands of dolphin deaths each year.

The method is mainly used by foreign boats.

More than 300 cetacean carcasses were found dead on beaches in the region in the year 2002-2003.

The MP for Falmouth and Camborne who chaired a parliamentary select committee which reported on dolphin deaths, said: "We are taking this fight to the heart of Europe.

"We must change European public opinion, so the maximum pressure is put on politicians in other countries.

"The fishery should be closed."

The British request for a ban was made by fisheries minister, Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw.

Campaigners are warning the UK dolphin population could be wiped out.

It is estimated that about 10,000 dolphins and porpoises die each around UK and French coasts, many of them after being caught up in bass nets.