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It begs the question why such schemes are not operating in the North Sea. Brendan May, the MSC’s director, puts the blame squarely on government. “European politicians are refusing to take the scientific evidence seriously and Blair has done so again. It’s no good saying 80 per cent cuts are unacceptable. It is the bare minimum for fishing to survive.”

He derides the farce of the annual setting of quotas in which fisheries ministers trade tonnes of fish over a table in Brussels like Mafia dons carving up a lucrative trade in contraband. “We are on the brink of a disaster,” declares May. “The spectre of Canada is before us.” A moratorium on cod fishing was introduced a decade ago at the Grand Banks, perhaps the world’s greatest fishery, but it was too late and the fish has never recovered.

Fishing is difficult to police; cheating is widespread and everybody blames the next guy’s boat. Scottish fishermen protest that they have reduced their fleet by 20 per cent and increased net sizes but “others”, they say, are not playing fair. It is not just the Spanish who cheat, say the Scots, pointing fingers at Grimsby and Hull. A big problem is “discard” trawlers dumping tonnes of undersized or unwanted fish that are surplus to quota in order to avoid landing an illegal catch. Nevertheless, trawlermen love their jobs. Behind the high-tech sonar that can spot shoals and the factory ships that gut, fillet and freeze the fish on the vessel, fishermen still feel the excitement of the chase. They are hunter-gatherers. Take away the gadgetry and a fisherman is no different to a hunter with a spear. It is a way of life that predates not just the industrial revolution but the start of farming thousands of years ago.

If they are to survive, fishermen must begin to act like farmers and less like hunters. And it is big companies, not governments, that are pushing for the change. Unilever is not alone in boycotting the North Sea; leading fish merchants and supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury are looking elsewhere for more sustainable fisheries. That leaves restaurants, local fishmongers and the chippy as the customer base for North Sea trawlermen. These buyers are unable or unwilling to question the way the fish is caught. They may not care.

Big companies cannot afford to ignore the behaviour of suppliers. Whatever the environmental issues, Unilever needs to know how much cod it can buy from Alaska and the Barents Sea next year and the year after. If a supplier damages the resource, it damages Unilever’s supply chain, puts at risk other suppliers and raises costs. It is an unacceptable commercial risk. It ought to be an unacceptable political risk. But a politician’s outlook is so hedged with anxiety about short-term gains and losses, he cannot see the blood in the water. Even today, Europe’s fishing industry is getting €3.8 billion (£2.4 billion) of public subsidy of which Spain absorbs the lion’s share. Half a billion euros is spent on aid for boat-building, a fleet of shiny new trawlers afloat on a barren sea.

Had that money been spent on fisheries management, we would not be where we are. Instead, the market will play a ruthless but effective role in bankrupting the foolish and greedy. Multinational food processors will carve up the remaining fish resources and run them as captive industries. It will be a game for big fleets and large co-operatives of smaller fishermen with the skills and discipline needed for self-regulation. Those with the resources and competence to run a proper fishery will survive, supported by the financial muscle of a big corporate buyer. The other boats are headed for the scrapyard.

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