Being one of the busiest seas in the world, the Mediterranean is also a sea where illicit fishing activities still go unnoticed and thus unpunished…until now.

Most of the cases of illegal fishing that make news in Europe seem to happen in far flung regions such as the Pacific or even the Antarctic. But such activities happen right under our noses.

Yesterday's agreement by EU bodies on a new regulation governing the European Union’s extensive external fishing fleet is a momentous step towards building sustainable fisheries globally and deserves wholehearted praise.

“I’d like to be - under the sea - in an octopus’s garden - in the shade” – The Beatles, Octopus’s Garden.

Today, the ROV and the samples taken in the Norwegian trench uncovered huge numbers of octopi. I am sure that the Beatles must have imagined the Octopus’s garden to be in the North Sea.

The mud samples coming up with the grab is so thick it takes us ten minutes to filter the sand from the shells, worms and other marine organisms. You can almost cut a piece of the mud like a piece of cake!

It has only been two days on-board but the Brussels lobbyists are slowly getting the hang of it. We are finally starting to develop our seamen’s legs: once we stepped of the ship yesterday evening in Grimsby we felt that our body was still swaying from the boat’s movement.

With all the cheer around yesterday’s vote on the CFP, we wanted to make sure that a couple of pieces of good news on fisheries subsidies didn’t slip through the cracks.