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June 29, 2011

Fighting for the Fish

 

The problem of discards is one of the greatest failures of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). If you follow our blog you’ll have read about it in the past. The numbers are disgusting – truthfully: 1.3 Million tons of marine fish (and other organisms) are discarded and dumped overboard (dead most often than not) by EU fishermen every year.

It’s not often that the CFP, or issues related to fisheries makes national headlines. For organizations like us, sometimes it feels like half of our struggle is simply getting people, from politicians to every day Europeans, to understand WHY they should care about these issues.

But that’s exactly what Hugh’s Fish Fight has managed to do; and in the past few months, since he launched his campaign in the UK, people have begun to open their eyes to one of the many issues that must be resolved in the upcoming reform of the CFP.

It’s been pretty cool seeing people get excited about reforming the CFP – and so far over 680,000 Europeans have made their voices heard. We hope you’ll do the same and add your name to the fight.

But remember, the fight doesn’t end there. Wanting change is just the first step, but the biggest mistake we can make is to rush into a “solution” to the discards problem that in the long run, is harmful to marine ecosystems. Our job is to make sure the policies that are put in place EFFECTIVELY tackle the problem, and that’s where it becomes tricky.

Want more info?

Learn more about bycatch and discards on our website.

Oceana’s position on discards