I know someone involved in the policy making relating to this decision when UK was in the EU. I have railed at him about this issue but he explained that the number of immediate deaths (of humans) related to marine pollution was too high to continue in the Mediterranean. It was a political not an ecological decision. I don’t think future human and animals deaths (which will be much higher) were fully unpacked because this can’t be factored in. Political decisions are currently made on a short term basis. This is what we are dealing with and why it all feels impossible.