Completely insanse waste - Fish Fight

Britain has been lobbying for change in both the CFP and CAP for twenty years now, we're one of the most progressive EU countries in that respect but there are others who very much want the same changes. The problem is those countries and governments where agriculture has a much bigger role in society and where it is regarded as an integral right - such that subsidy and income are supported against all evidence and research. The polictical winds are changing but so very, very slowly. Having worked in the fields of both fisheries and agricultural commodity and market anaylsis, I can say that most (UK) researchers and policy makers are equally as despairing as yourselves. The problem is that the polictical systems are almost desgined to thwart any kind of reform, when you have to get unamnimity across 27 countries, you're always going to be in for a pasting...

I thought that the quota system and discards were somehting which was relatively well known already? Actually SEEING it makes it more real, though.
IMO the problem is that some sort of limit is needed, and relying on consumers not to buy (eg) cod doesn't work....so the limit has to be on the producers.
I'm not sure of the detials, but I thought that the number-of-days-limit had been thrown out as an idea because it would lead to lack of investment in boats /poor safety? I really don't know the details though.

I've started another thread in chat here - I wanted there to be a thread with a clear call to action in the title (something I read in a book once about marketing!).
will try to keep this one bumped too.

We pretty much have Pollock every week as Friday fish supper as well as other stuff - still find the range is limited. Would like there to be a really good fishmonger nearby....

Like to cook fresh trout to and that's cheap and lovely.

I just don't understand why it's thrown away - if it's caught land it so you can measure how much is actually caught. Throwing it over for the crabs to eat is a waste.

I have been eating Pollock and Gurnard for years as alternatives (cheaper too). You need to start asking your supermarket counter for it the more people who ask the more likely they are to stock it.

there was a huge fishy thread a year or so ago; Sophable's dh who knows all about it came on and it culminated in Waitrose or someone offering him a free visit to one of their fish farms.

so it is not that MNers don't care about fish.... I wonder why it hasn't taken off.

I thought this was just an evil waste of fish, have signed and forwarded

Have signed and alerted friends thanks to this thread. Don't give up! I think it's just not as clear cut as chickens, ie buy clearly-labelled free range.

OK I've signed up on the Fish Fight website and emailed Nigel Farage asking for info on the Fisheries Committee's plans for improving the CFP's stewardship of edible species in European waters.

Well, I'm interested. What about writing to our MEPs? Isn't there a letter form to the head of the EU Fisheries Programme on the Fish Fight website?

list of MEPs here

I'm depressed to find that, of the MEPs covering the South East, the one sitting on the Committee of Fisheries is Nigel Farage [sigh]. Oh well, I'll write to him.

everyone changes their name to a sustainable fish!

(disclaimer - I know it's not quite as simple as some fish being sustainable and others not but you know what I mean)

Worzsel - there are lots of threads, I've seen at least 5, but none of them has got very big.

Who's for a fishy name change to help draw attention to it?

Bump

I am amazing how little interest this has got on here. I remember when they did the chicken one there was a HUGE post and people were up in arms about it.

bump

Done, and my god, this is such an outrage, we were nearly in tears watching all that gorgeous and delicious and nutritious food go to waste.... those poor fish, they lived and died for nothing.

Well done Nigella, keep bumping this, if people don't post.

Tonight is about farmed fish I think. I agree that it's a very complex issue, and that the programme doesn't really seem to be throwing up that many solutions.

Presumably if the quotas were abolished, it would be very difficult to stop wholesale trawling of everything in the sea?

You know, watching tonight I feel quite angry as a "consumer": whatever we do we can't win. We are old to eat more fish. We are told to eat "sustainable" fish, and yet the apparently plentiful fish from our seas are not easily obtainable - we often only have the choice of cod/haddock etc. We might think that eating farmed fish is better, only then we learn that there are lots of problems with that too: environmental damage, poor health of fish etc. So we can't bloody win. I feel so angry as I think it is up to the scientists to decide what's what and then for our politicians to sensibly implement their advice in a way that us consumers can rely on so that we can shop for and eat fish happily.

I don't know much about it but I think that would mean that if you wanted to carry on fishing you would have to keep buying quota and since there's a limited amount of quota, if everyone had nearly used up theirs the prices would be very high. So it would get to the point where it wouldn't make commercial sense to keep on fishing because you wouldn't make back the money for selling the fish that you would have to spend to get the quota.

so, sethstark - do you mean once a limit has been reached, no more fishing at all should be allowed for that boat that year? If so, I think you are right - land everything, and once you have reached your limit you must stop altogether: no waste (though perhaps fishermen out of business.....)

I think it's Iceland where they have a system of auctioning off unused quota.
You have to land everything you catch and then declare it and then have to buy the quota for it or you get fined.

surely the key is just that the quota has to be tied to what you catch rather than what you land and sell?

I watched it and it was so sad and shocking - such a waste of fish. However, I did get annoyed at the programme and the way it was presented as it was very "dumbed down" in my opinion: if it really is true (and scientists say it is...) that cod stocks are low, then we must protect the stocks. If that means a quota system, then so be it. If having a quota system means some "Discard" (as they called it) then perhaps we have to accept that (unless someone can think of a better way? I didn't see any other suggestions though.....just a lot of sad shaking of heads). Imagine if they were allowed to bring back all the extra cod over and above their quotas - well, then the quota would be meaningless wouldn't it. I think the only answer would be to prevent fishermen from taking theor boats out at all once their cod (or whatever) quota has been reached. I also wondered whether it would be feasible to allow a fisherman to "purchase" unused quota from another fisherman who hasn't met his, and thereby avoid some of the waste - or is this unrealistic and unmanageable?