It has been a long road to get to this point, but will it finally result in pressure being lifted on important ecosystems and in particular the small whale populations that have abandoned the south coast in recent years for want of food asks ecologist Pádraic Fogarty

'Can we, in good conscience, pass our children the responsibility of writing the obituary for the world’s ocean?'

One of the positive things about today's world is a growing awareness that we cannot continue to exploit the natural world as if it is an endless resource.