Sustainable Fish

In my other on line journal, I have long been ad advocate of the need for a moratorium on fishing to allow depleted stocks to recover. Long before the banking collapse, and then I was told that European economic rules did not allow member states to support or subsidies any industry or sector, thus fishermen could not be paid not to fish. These same rules were pushed aside when governments wanted to bail out the banks. But for far less money than it cost to bail out the banks, the fishing industry could have been paid to stay in port for two to four years, while fish stocks could have recovered.

The problem is that far to much of the fishing industry is unsustainable. A major part of that arises from the way the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is implemented in Europe, and for at least thirty years, that scientific advice has been ignored. The politicians always put jobs and short term votes, before the long term viability of the fishing industry.

Thus I am rather sceptical of claims of some sustainable schemes. However, the Marine Stewardship Council scheme does seem to really do what the job it is supposed to do.

However, the greatest problem is getting the message across to the public that sustainability of the fish they eat really does matter. So often when fish is cooked on television in cookery programmes there are frequently no mention of the sustainability of the fish, and often they are using fish that are unsustainable and endangered by overfishing. Equally, many of the supermarkets will make a big “Song and Dance” about using fish from sustainable sources and endorsed by the Marine Stewardship Council, yet will still sell fish and species from unsustainable sources.

Yet here in Britain one major retailer has gone a step further. While M&S (Marks and Spenser) is targeted towards the higher end of the food market and their customer demographic is much more Middle Class than most food retailers, they have signed up to the WWFs Seafood Charter. The first in the UK, and it will mean that by 2015 all their seafood will come from the most sustainable sources. Not just sustainable sources the most sustainable sources, thus ensuring that fish and fishing survives. Now I have no doubt that they have done this for economic reasons, and not least to ensure that they will have stocks for the future, perhaps when others can not obtain fish or seafood at all. But at least it is a move in the right direction and I hope that all the other retailers take note and realise that only by going to true sustainability will they have fish to sell in the future.


A link to see films that tell the story further