THE British government is backing Channel Island calls to ban pair trawling in the English Channel.

At Thursday’s British-Irish Council summit in Dublin, UK environment minister Elliot Morley told his Jersey and Guernsey counterparts that pressure would be put on other countries to bring in an international ban, or to at least mitigate the effects of by-catching on fish species and marine mammals.

The director of Jersey’s Environment Department, Chris Newton, said: ‘The UK are taking a strong lead and will be keeping up the pressure.’ Pair trawling is illegal within UK and Channel Islands waters, but Scottish- and Dutch-registered boats are operating outside those limits, decimating fish stocks and causing the death of dolphins and porpoises.

Over the winter the incidences of dolphin carcases washed up on island beaches increased, mainly in Guernsey.

Mr Newton accompanied Environment president Senator Philip Ozouf on Thursday’s trip.

Senator Ozouf said that both bailiwicks thanked Mr Morley for the UK’s support and that they would be working together to enforce more effective measures to conserve fish stocks by extending international conventions.