George Eustice

A poll by YouGov showed that 91 per cent of people believe whales should continue to have protection from being hunted.

The ban on commercial whaling is likely to be a contentious topic for some governments attending the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Slovenia which starts today. The UK has historically been a strong supporter of whale conservation in the IWC, and nearly 70 per cent of Britons polled agreed that the UK government should have a prominent role in ensuring the whaling ban is upheld.

Commenting ahead of the session, Greenpeace UK oceans campaigner Alix Foster Vander Elst said:

‘It’s no secret that small-scale fishermen have been left cheated and neglected by the current quota system. But while George Eustice has held up leaving the EU as a magic pill to cure the fishing industry, it was his department which gave almost two-thirds of fishing quota to just three companies, leaving small-scale fishermen struggling.

In April, during Greenpeace and NUTFA’s “Coastal Champions” boat tour promoting local fishing, which stopped in 25 coastal communities around England and Wales, George Eustice joined 120 then-parliamentary candidates in signing up to an action plan which called on the Government to reallocate fishing quota from large industrial vessels to local, low-impact, boats in order to create jobs in