THE proposal by the European Union to allow member state governments to set their own fishing quotas for each protected species has noble ambitions, but as ever the devil is in the detail. Under new plans, Britain's 1.4million sea anglers could be forced to record their catches, turning a popular hobby into a laborious form-filling exercise.

Shore anglers are understandably furious, while the idea that each boat or dinghy will have to be registered and every possible launch point policed is a bureaucratic nightmare in the making. For the EU to target recreational sea anglers after years of fudging the commercial fishing industry problem seems lazy and misguided. Defra threw out a recent proposal on licensing sea anglers after robust lobbying from the Countryside Alliance, so we will be looking for a similar rejection this time.

SIMON HART

Chief Executive, Countryside Alliance