As per the media report top UK Science Councellor and his wife owns a consulting firm which manages fisheries. Zoologists informed that they catch tens of thousands threatened fish in the Indian Ocean. Professor John Beddington and his wife are sole shareholders in, and last year made some 550,000 euros from, the Marine Resources Assessment Group (MRAG), which manages fisheries and provides specialist advise on a global basis.
According to a report from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which manages London Zoo, claims that MRAG managed commercial fishing in the Chagos archipelago off the Maldives which is “almost certainly having detrimental effects on the ecosystem”. The Chagos archipelago consists of about 55 islands in British territorial water south of the Maldives, and The Foreign Office awarded MRAG a contract to manage commercial fishing around the islands in 2005.
The report also claim that thousands of ray fish and sharks, described as vulnerable or “near threatened” species, have been caught in these waters by trawlers, primarily as bycatch from tuna fisheries. Sometime the amount of bycatch is immense and there are species in it which are threatened. MRAG is now proposing plans to ban fishing in the area and establish it as one of the world’s largest marine reserves.
