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Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall Wins The Big Fish Fight
March 01 2011
We all knew that fishermen were not allowed to catch fish that were too small, or too young, or if they were over their quota, or endangered (like cod, haddock and plaice). Most of us would think that was a good thing. The thing we didn't know was that when these fish were thrown back into the sea, most of them would die.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was outraged at this wasteful practise and, together with Channel 4, hi-lighted the problem in ‘The Big Fish Fight’, where we learned that these fishing laws resulted in 1.3 million tons of fish being discarded each year. The EU estimates that discards in the North Sea were between 40% and 60% of the fish caught. In addition to this, Scottish fishermen throw away an estimated £40 million worth of fish each year.
The British public were outraged and acted in their thousands. More than 650,000 of us signed a letter asking that the Brussels-based laws be changed and the campaign was backed by a number of celebrities including Jamie Oliver and Stephen Fry.
In response to this pressure, the European Fisheries Commissioner is putting forward plans to ban the practise of discarding these fish, and she admits that it is in response to the campaign. The discarding of mackerel, herring and blue whiting would be banned in the first year, and this would then be extended to situations where two or more species were caught.
We are absolutely delighted and thank her for her actions, but as Hugh says, we must also change our eating habits, to encompass a wider range of fish species in our diet.
Hugh and fishfight want us to keep up the pressure and so please write to everyone and ask them to join the campaign.
Also, please contact your local supermarket and ask them to stock sustainable fish with new varieties for us to enjoy ( and then remember to buy them!! ) and ask your local chippie to start selling mackerel and get a flag on the UK map!!
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