Text 5. Trawlers "caught" in Canada's net

I. Read the text.

Make sure you understand the words below:

to retrieve	to recover, to get back
to reject	to refuse

Sunday, 9 May, 2004

Canada has produced evidence of what it says is illegal fishing just outside its waters by Portuguese trawlers.

Officials said one boat was found with protected fish on board, and that another had cut loose a net just before they boarded the vessel.

Fisheries officials say the net was illegal, as its mesh was too small under international regulations.

The net was retrieved after a 30-hour search of the ocean floor in the Grand Banks area of the North Atlantic.

Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans said 65% of the fish found in the net were from species protected under a fishing moratorium "namely cod, American plaice and red fish". The ministry showed pictures of the net and its catch on its website.

The ship's Portuguese captain says the net got stuck on the bottom of the ocean and broke off shortly before Canadian fisheries officers boarded the vessel. The Canadians say the net was clearly cut.

But Portugal rejected the claims at the highest level.

The Brites was one of seven ships inspected last week just outside Canada's 200-mile waters. Another vessel was mentioned for two violations, including fishing for banned species.

Within its waters, Canada has strictly enforced a fishing moratorium for cod and other endangered fish.

Canada has often protested to the European Union and the governments of Spain and Portugal that their vessels regularly break the rules in the North Atlantic.

Commercial fishing for cod and American plaice has been banned for a decade because stocks were so weak in the Grand Banks.

Vocabulary

to produce evidence	представить доказательство
protected	защищённый, находящийся под защитой, охраной (закона)
to cut loose	освободиться, избавиться
to stick (stuck)	застрять
to break off	отрываться
endangered	находящийся под угрозой исчезновения (о виде)
stock	запас (популяции)

II. Vocabulary Practice

1. Find an odd word.

1. illegal, banned, protected, prohibited;

2. slick, stuck, trapped, caught;

3. reject, detect, refuse, deny;

4. enforce, put into effect, carry out, submit.

2. Find the words from the text which mean the following:

• a period of ten years;

• facts that show clearly that something exists or is true;

• an official stopping of an activity for a period of time;

• a place on the Internet where you can find information about something;

• a statement that something is true, even though it has not been proved.

3. Match the words in column A with those in column B to form a phrase.

A	B
to retrieve	a) evidence
to produce	b) a moratorium
to reject	c) a net
to break	d) a claim
to cut	e) loose
to enforce	f) fishing
to ban	g) the rules