THE TIMES, 13/6/1995

BY MICHAEL HORNSBY

EMMA BONINO, the European Fisheries Commissioner, is to. visit the tuna fishing waters in the Bay of Biscay where British and other European fishermen compete for the same catch.

The Commission has chartered a boat, Northern Horizon, to patrol the tuna watersin the Mediterranean and northeast Atlantic. Signora Bonino, who intends to be on board for several days in mid-July when the number of boats fishing for tuna will he approaching its seasonal peak, likens her role to that of a football referee.

She promised that she would be as tough with Spanish harassment as she was with Canada's "gunboat diplomacy" over halibut fishing off Newfoundland. When it came to fish conservation, no country had a blameless record. "There are no saints or bandits," she said.

The first British boats are expected to sail for the tuna grounds from Newlyn, Cornwall, this week.