Hughs Fish Fight

[BigDad]

Have you been watching this on Channel 4? Can Hugh FW do for fish what he did for the chickens...

Over half the fish thats caught gets chucked back into the sea and its illegal to land it. You can join up at http://www.fishfight.net/ to stop this waste!

Nearly 85,000 joined so far since its launch today.

[silverfox]

Hugh's done bugger-all for chickens. Get real. Chickens exist because we eat them. What do you want? Give them rights so we can sell them insurance?

Before your time, I suspect, the great Malcolm Muggeridge addressed this question - if you're starving in India what's wrong with eating a battery chicken? That question will become even more relevant as population increases and the western world (and now China, India, Brazil?), hogs the resources.

Yes it's despicable how our lunch of a tuna sandwich means the death of millions of other, probably perfectly edible, fish, but blame that on the EEC, world trade agreements. Hugh is not going to influence this debate one iota.

It's a bit like the old condom debate. If I'm starving in Africa and an Ed do-gooder gives me a pack of 100 condoms do I say, thanks but me and my children would prefer something to eat?

BigDad, ask yourself the question - so what if nearly 85,000 joined so far since its launch today? What will that change?

[steveo]

World governments are incapable of managing the fisheries problem.

The WWF panda should be replaced by a tuna and the new Rainbow Warrior should have torpedoes

[Alec John Moore]

People like Hugh and Jamie are merely the high profile public face of a movement that wants to see a sustainable approach to human consumption and development. There is more likely to be effective change at a multi lateral level (EC) if publics put pressure on their governments to vote for change. I didn't see the TV programme but I spent some time on the website just now and I am better informed as a result. I am also motivated to take part in the campaign to seek change in EC regulations on fishing and to continue to change my eating habits to effect change at a personal level.

[peterstorm1985]

silverfox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> Yes it's despicable how our lunch of a tuna

> sandwich means the death of millions of other,

> probably perfectly edible, fish, but blame that on

> the EEC, world trade agreements. Hugh is not going

> to influence this debate one iota.

How can you blame the "EEC,world trade agreements" for all the perfectly edible fish that get discarded? Quotas may be an unwieldy and failing attempt to resolve an international crisis but vast quantities of fish are discarded, not because of quotas, but simply because no one chooses to eat it (and so make it commercially viable). And why is that? Because far too many people are too narrow minded to have anything but a tuna sandwich for lunch. If you don't choose to eat anything but a single species then you must take personal responsibility for all the other species that suffer as a direct consequence. You can't blame a national or international government body for what you have for lunch. They don't have any control over your stomach, or your hand as it reaches to the tin on the supermarket shelves.

[poozer]

Oh ho Paul at the Sea Cow on LL has said he will be trialling mackerel baps, as featured on Hugh F-W's Channel 4 program (& on the link at the top of this thread), this weekend 22nd - 23rd Jan so show your support please!

http://www.theseacow.co.uk/

I'm going to try one on Saturday & if it was delicious will definitely be asking for more interesting species to be sold there.

[DJKillaQueen]

I love Mackeral so will probably love this...will be sure to try it out......yum!

[the seacow]

Hi all. Poozer is right. We have mack baps on the menu as well as grilled mackerel fillets with red onion salsa. We have a campaign running called 'Back the Mack' and are pleased people are taking an interest. We carried out an exercise in conjunction with the advice of the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) about 4 years ago. This had us looking at our menu closely to understand what we were selling and how and where it was caught. Straight away we removed several species considered endangered or over fished. These included the likes of swordfish, bluefin tuna and monkfish. We have had mackerel on before (with a patchy response) and reduced our cod purchases by selling coley alongside it at a cheaper price. We would love to use many of the species considered either unfashionable but sadly many people stick to what they know, ie cod and chips. The best we can do is to try and stay aware of what we are selling, its impact on that species and encourage our customers to experiment with different varieties. We do respond to requests from customers and because we are small, we can run these little campaigns to promote certain fish.

[huncamunca]

fish invariably have their swim bladders burst when hauled up to the surface at much over paddling depth, so chucking back isnt an option that is likely to keep the stocks high - the problems isnt with faceless EUcrats blah blah sticking these rules in place to rile our fishermen, but the inability to make a brave decision across the board to call a moratorium on commercial fishing in the EU as a whole - little else is going to make much difference.There are other ways of fishing that will limit the amount of throwback, but the weight of local political pressures in key regions where fishing is of such importance is killing all truly effective measures in its tracks.

As an aside, apart from promoting Peadophile priests, ensuring women remain seconad class citizens in much of the world & helping the exponential growth in birth rates, the Catholic church also had a big hand in killing off much of white fish stock in the Atlantic , due to its historical politcal gerrymandering. Well done the Catholic church. innit.

[bonaome]

There's an Early Day Motion in Parliament this Thursday regarding revised EU rules and regs on fishing. The EDM asks the Govt. not to sign it off without something in it about bycatch and discards. You can read the EDM here. It's the second most signed EDM ever, apparently, though Tessa Jowel hasn't signed it. On the page here, there's a template you can use if you want to email her to ask her to vote with the EDM.

[Alec John Moore]

She's in the shadow cabinet so I think she's not allowed to sign the EDM. That's what Harriet Harman stated in her response to my letter asking her to sign it.

[david_carnell]

That's correct. Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet MPs cannot sign EDMs.

[steveo]

Will my sixteen stone grandchildren ask, 'What was a fish granddad?'

[tfwsoll]

The world may be wedded to cod and chips and tuna sandwiches but it's worth bearing in mind that in 1992 Newfoundland's

cod fishing industry collapsed overnight when there were no cod to catch when the season started. This had a disasterous impact on the economy, which has never recovered. The cod never returned, even after a 10 year moritorium on fishing, but it doesn't seem like anyone in a position of influence has taken this as a warning of what might happen elsewhere.

[huncamunca]

The politics of the fish industry.Now theres a subject I could bang on about for pages. but wont.

Needless to say,. we must not trust either the Polticians, the Lobby & Industry groups or the fishermen themselves. They will strip the sea with no thought of the future & reply on skewed Scientific evidence of rising populations to justify ramping up of the take( read about hyper aggregation in fisheries if you wish to know more).

Throwback is a non issue & a diversion as I outlined above - it merely legitimises the taking of juvenile fish. Take the MSC views with a large pinch of salt, as they would not exist without significant ( if not obvious ) Industry influence - noble but flawed.

We touch ourselves in our private places when we see some slickly produced Hollywood feature about Whales or Dolphins ( invaribaly given human charachteristics and emotions ) yet fail to see that marine Cetaceans are relatively insignificant in the big scheme of things, whereas the ugly Gadidae family make or break the ecosystem around the UK.

Its easy to save the whales - good telly and all that - less good telly to save Monkfish. The smarky fuck With a guardian tucked under his arm spending ?50 on Swordfish at Moxons for a dinner party upsets me still.

*edited to correct - gadus is a species/ Gadidae is the family. silly huncamunca