It may be the end of fish discards, but now we need more marine conservation zones to stop our seabeds becoming a wasteland

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Channel 4 TV show Fish Fight has begun a new series. In a stroke of good timing, the European parliament voted last week to phase out the wasteful discarding of fish at sea, the main target of the first series. So you could be forgiven for wondering what there is left to fight for. A great deal, it turns out.

The reckless waste of throwing away prime fish after they have been caught is a symptom of the mismanagement of our seas. But it is not the biggest problem they face. That was revealed in shocking footage from the Irish Sea in last night's programme. I joined Hugh to dive two places in the waters of the Isle of Man, one that had been protected from industrial trawling and dredging for over 20 years, the other regularly worked by scallop dredges and trawls from the local fleet.