Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall rightly criticises fishing practices but a discard ban must be joined by other tough measures

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has set his sights on several of the fishing industry's dirty secrets in a series aired this week on Channel 4's three-part Big Fish Fight series. The first programme looked at the practice of discarding, whereby fishermen are compelled by EC rules to throw away perfectly good fish that they have no quota for, while pursuing fish that they do. The images of basket after basket of wholesome fish flung back dead were powerful and disturbing, and Fearnley-Whittingstall was right to shine a spotlight on this disgraceful practice.