The European Union must slash subsidies to its fishing industry to halt the inexorable growth in fleet capacity and the continuing decline in vital fish stocks, a leading environmental group said yesterday.

The fishing industry in the EU received more than #1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) in subsidies in 1997, according to conservative estimates from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). This was equivalent to #14,000 per vessel, #200 per tonne of fish produced, or more than #5,400 per European fisherman, who now get around a fifth of their total income from EU and government subsidies, WWF said.

"We call on the EU to phase out all subsidies which encourage overfishing," said Mr Tony Long, director of WWF's European policy office. "Subsidies go hand-in-hand with a dramatic increase in capacity and a cycle of decline in fish stocks which must be broken," he added.