Yabby,

You won't get any argument from me on man's capacity for greed.
I might point out ,though, that technological advances now enable mankind to indulge his greed far beyond anything sustainable.

Belly,

"...not so sure it is wrong."

Don't think that because an activity is "sanctioned", it is "right".
http://worldwildlife.org/industries/wild-caught-seafood

I must admit that I agree with Belly.

What is worse, 10 small trawlers or one big one, especially if the bi catch ratio is the same and the fishing quota total is the same. The conditions and inspections are far easier to monitor and enforce than on 10 smaller trawlers.

Is this the usual emotive green's response to everything, or is there a rational argument.

Belly, if governments really want to protect/prolong fish reserves, then they must do more than simply bann, or close fisheries.

The eradication of mossies is a classic egample.

For ever and a day, these mossie larvay have been the primary food source for juvenile fish, mostly hatched in mangrove swamps. By killing the mossies, the food source is gone, with the result being that many juvenile fish die well before they even leave the breeding grounds, as there is simply no food.

It stands to reason that if you stop what is causing the depletion of juvenile fish, these fish will become so plentiful that restrictions placed on fishing could be wound back a peg or two.

As usual, governments tackle the problem, not the cause.

SM, there are indeed good rational reasons to question what the
European super trawlers are up to. The global fisheries situation is
very much a disaster. I read somewhere recently, that we now only
have around one sixth the fish in the oceans, compared to a couple
of hundred years ago.

Fact is that today our technology is such, that we can totally upset
ecosystems, beyond their ability to recover. Look at what happened
to the cod. The Europeans then moved on to African waters and their supertrawlers stripped the oceans there, leaving little for the local
fishermen. Without fish, there won't be too many breeders left.
But look at Japan, where the Chinese and Japanese, fish heavily.
They caught so many fish, that not too many were left to eat the
baby Normura jellyfish. Now Japanese trawlers have nets full of
giant Nomura jellyfish.

So I think that we need to think beyond capitalism here and question
what is sustainable. With our oceans its largely been a free for all
and the results are there for all to see.