AS the Minister responsible, John Prescott supports the world-wide ban on whaling for food, which both Japan and Norway are attempting to overturn.

I also support this ban, but with the wholesale slaughter of dolphins and the netting of spawning bass in our own backyard, is there not a danger that he will have international egg on his face unless he cleans up the disaster happening on our own doorstep?

At the centre of the problem are said to be French, Spanish and British trawlers, which drag funnel-shaped pelagic nets, which can be more than 100 yards wide, in search of anchovies, hake, herring, bass and other fish. They pick up everything that crosses their path, including the dolphins.

Scientists estimate that at the current rate of mortality, Atlantic Ocean dolphins, currently estimated at 160,000, will be extinct within 20 years.

Let's ban this type of trawling now before the dolphins have all been killed off. Write to your MP now about this slaughter of these innocent mammals.

MARTIN JAMES, Grindleton, Clitheroe.

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