Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall & Fish Discards

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

I had absolutely no idea that the fish thrown back were dead - I had assumed that they were still living. It's an absolute disgrace given the state of some fish stocks & the number of people in the world who would be glad to eat the fish. Did you see the lovely meals he made with the fish? Then later he said that the fish thrown away from that *one* catch would make those same meals for 2,000 people. People in the 3rd world must think the west is crazy.

Primrose

Wee_Bargain_Hunter wrote: »

I had absolutely no idea that the fish thrown back were dead - I had assumed that they were still living. It's an absolute disgrace given the state of some fish stocks & the number of people in the world who would be glad to eat the fish. Did you see the lovely meals he made with the fish? Then later he said that the fish thrown away from that *one* catch would make those same meals for 2,000 people. People in the 3rd world must think the west is crazy.

Totally agree. It's immoral and that's why I think that people should really get behind him and support his campaign. I admire the way he has been prepared to stick his head above the parapet on more than one occasion (i.e. the battery chicken campaign) and take on the Big Gun supermarkets. It takes courages to risk being humiliated in front of such a large audience, so people like this deserve our support. His high public profile means he can achieve more than we can individually to get things changed, but he obviously can't do this without public support.

Ken68

We shouldn't be sea fishing( or fresh water fishing for pleasure), anymore than we should be hunting.
Don't suppose it will ever happen, but all it needs is one country to ban it in their waters to start a revolution.

Katie-Kat-Kins

bevrob wrote: »

Thanks for the post. i have sent my name to the petition. This sort of waste is disgusting, especially as there are a lot of people who could benefit from this loss. As a vegetarian i dont eat fish and agree with what someone else said about people complaining about not eating a cow thats been slaughtered humanely but would happily eat fish. I agree to a point, but i would still choose to eat a fish if i had to, rather than a cow for humane reasons. Go to Peta website and watch that Cow being 'Humanely slaughtered' you too will choose the fish!!
bev xx

I won't because the cow isn't facing extiction (and the fish would make me vomit)

So many people make choices based on what is fluffy and cute rather than the genuine ethics and sustainability of the situation.

sad_dog_lady

thanks , have signed and added it to my tweets on twitter, hope that helps.

sad_dog_lady

Ken68 wrote: »

We shouldn't be sea fishing( or fresh water fishing for pleasure), anymore than we should be hunting.
Don't suppose it will ever happen, but all it needs is one country to ban it in their waters to start a revolution.

ken, i hunt i shoot rabbits, but they are 1, a pest, 2, always eaten, not for sport.

jackieb

mumoftwo wrote: »

As I understood it, they still catch the fish, they were saying there is lots and lots of cod, the fish dies, they throw it overboard dead because they are not allowed to land it, so how is that preserving the species?

One fisherman was saying if they changed it from fish quota, to limited time fishing instead, they would be able to land all the fish they catch and still preserve stocks because of the limited time they are out fishing. No idea myself if that would be an option.

Our fishermen are already limited to how many days at sea that they're allowed to fish.

Brussels is a joke. These discards have been going on for ages. I'm glad more people are being made aware of it. Foreign markets are crying out for our fish exports but we can't give them what they want.

Ken68

sad_dog_lady wrote: »

ken, i hunt i shoot rabbits, but they are 1, a pest, 2, always eaten, not for sport.

Yes Lady, you are probably right, it's the predator thingy, eat or be eaten, and I do occasionally eat fish, and certainly meat.
It's just that I see one of these trawler shows on TV, then when I go by the fish slab in Tesco......

sad_dog_lady

what about a tax on wasted food at supermarkets. they either discount it, lower prices or what ever food products are wasted get weighed and the stores taxed, i like waitrose because they are using all the cuts of meat, like pig cheek and beef skirt, its great prices and nothing goes to waste. wish the fishermans fish could be the same, my freinds dad works at grimsby getting fish early in the am to sell to resterants, and he told us that more and more fish is deformed by polution and resterants are rejecting non class a looking fish too. like the apples that have a blemish ..... crazy perfectionists .

grahamc2003

sad_dog_lady wrote: »

what about a tax on wasted food at supermarkets. they either discount it, lower prices or what ever food products are wasted get weighed and the stores taxed, i like waitrose because they are using all the cuts of meat, like pig cheek and beef skirt, its great prices and nothing goes to waste. wish the fishermans fish could be the same, my freinds dad works at grimsby getting fish early in the am to sell to resterants, and he told us that more and more fish is deformed by polution and resterants are rejecting non class a looking fish too. like the apples that have a blemish ..... crazy perfectionists .

I think taxes could be used to answer the obscene waste of 'discard'. Given the fish unmder quota are going to be killed anyhow, it isn't helping conservation or sustainability anyway - so it's main aim fails.

Perhaps if the quotas remain, there could be a tax on any caught, landed and sold over quota? Say a 'quota' tax of 50% (so the fishermen and the public benefit to the same extent) of the selling price at the docks of the over quota fish. At the same time, it should be made illegal to dump fish (the opposite of the current situation), so that everything caught gets landed, hence zero waste. The overall result would be that there'd still be a disinsentive to catch endangered species, but if they are caught inadvertently, then they aren't wasted.

The other question is how come, if these fish under quota are endangerd, so many of them are caught, even when other species are being fished for? Every fisherman in the film said cod was bountiful these days, and implied they were so plentiful they couldn't be avoided.