Pizza eaters who like a tasty tiny fish on top of their melted cheese look set to be able to enjoy the flavour for a while longer. Proposed EU curbs on the size of the anchovy catch have been warmly welcomed by Tameside Euro-MP Chris Davies. But he has warned that Spanish fishermen are campaigning to have them weakened in ways that he believes threatens the future of stocks.

The major anchovy fishery in the Bay of Biscay has been closed for five years because of fears that it faced complete collapse.  Scientists now claim that it can be safely re-opened so long as no more than 30% of the fish are caught in any one year.

An attempt by Spanish and French MEPs to raise fish catches to unsustainable levels was been beaten off in a key European Parliament committee by just two votes.

Chris Davies, who is campaigning for major reform to the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, fears that the battle indicates the size of the challenge ahead. The Liberal Democrat MEP said: “Many politicians still insist on putting the short term interests of fishermen before the need to guarantee fish stocks for the long term.

“Unless we secure change, there will be no more fish left in our seas.”

Fishery collapse happens when so many fish are caught that they cannot recover by breeding. The most dramatic recent example occurred in the North Atlantic when the cod fishery of the Grand Banks was closed in 1992 due to fish stocks falling to 1% of their original level.

The fishery has still not recovered 18 years later.