I'm not often taken by campaigns, and I knew that by-catch is a problem, but it wasn't until Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall started his Fish Fight that I realised just how big a problem it is. On the trawler Hugh visited, they had to throw away dead, 50% of their catch as they had no quota. This happened every five hours. If you just counted the Cod, it was enough to feed 2,000 people. Yes 2,000 people, every five hours from just one boat.
Surely, it would be better to limit the number of days the boat was allowed to fish, but to land everything they caught.
Apart from the shameful waste of fish, think of the waste of fuel used by the Trawler having to stay at sea twice as many days.
I urge you all to sign up to his campaign and lobby you MP & MEP.
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It was an appalling and sickening spectacle. It makes one feel so impotent in face of European bureaucracy and political fudge. Our MPs have less and less to do because of EU legislation, but they still, somehow, manage to allow this shameful and wasteful nonsense to continue. I despair!
Yea and nice to see that tesco's dolphin friendly tuna isn't so dolphin friendly afterall (I must mention yes this also goes for princes)
Ever since Ted Heath gave our fishing away the EU rules just get more and more silly. It is time we claimed our fishing grounds back. Apart from anything else think of the extra employment this would create.
The only beneficiaries of the present policy seem to be the seagulls.. The obligatory wasting of the catch is a 'lose lose' scenario in the context of making the industry sustainable for the future.. Needless to say, I side with Hugh FW on this!
The EU was set up to maintain high food prices within the community. Throwing half the fish away means what remains costs more. Job done then!
Great programme.
There are big problems though - 1) VERY few species of fish are commercially valuable, 2) Overcapacity of INDUSTRIAL fleets (so that's trawling).
Nonetheless this certainly is a cause worthy of attention as discards are a key contributor to the depletion of global fish stocks. Additionally (what the programme hasn’t highlighted), illegal fishing activities – by unregistered vessels, illegal gear usage, or fishing in restricted areas – also have a massive impact on marine biodiversity, the livelihoods of fishermen, and the food security of some of the world’s poorest people.
To improve fisheries management and put an end to this madness, SIGN HERE by the 26th Jan (great if you could pass it on too!):
http://tinyurl.com/tacklepiratefishing
Almost every fish caught would have a value, even if only for cat food, cut-price own-brand fish fingers or fishmeal.
Some shrimp fishing produces over 90% 'bycatch', sometimes including endanger turtles.
Eat local produce, such as lamb, and you'll be supporting the local economy, rather than supporting the destruction of marine habitat. Vote with your money - nothing has more effect.
Zoe - I don’t quite understand why "discards are a key contributor to the depletion of global fish stocks". Discards are a logical consequence of certain types of fishing - so it must be some aspect of fishing that is responsible for the alleged depletion rather than discards – which are a result of fishing is you see what I mean.
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