Utfiskning av haven är ett stort problem, och Frankrikes president Sarkozy gör det inte bättre. Han tycks mena att det är fiskarna (de mänskliga) som har rätt gentemot forskarna:

 

Then, the president said this, and his words could sum up everything that makes people in Brussels increasingly fearful and disdainful of Mr Sarkozy:

"We must stop this situation where we have scientists on one side and fishermen on the other, because the first people who have an interest in saving the resource, it's the fishermen."

This could be glossed another way: in effect, what Mr Sarkozy was saying was:

"Facts versus a French special interest group? It's no contest." The final insult was the line about fishermen having an interest in protecting the resource: European fishermen have had many years to demonstrate, beyond all doubt, that they heed first and last the lure of short-term profits by extracting as many fish from the sea as possible.

Som Economistbloggen skriver "Fakta mot franska specialintressen? Självklart vem som vinner."

Läs mer: Facts, who needs them? | Certain ideas of Europe | Economist.com