Completely insanse waste - Fish Fight

I'm watching it now. I am truly astonished that this is allowed to go on!

One of the fishermen said that whatever he does he's a criminal, land the fish and be a criminal in the eyes of the law, throw it back and be a moral criminal and it is so bloody true.

Killing fish and then throwing it back for no reason is beyond awful. What a disgusting waste of life!

I dont know much about it, but would the dead fish not be eaten by the live fish and other sealife. It does seem a ridiculous waste though.

I think I want someone who knows about Europe to explain how we are going to get it changed given it is the Common Fisheries Policy (?) not just a British thing over which we have power. Do we have to get European law to change, are they going to be really resistant to it, and if they don't what would happen if we just basically seceded in relation to fish?

Bumping to make sure the maximum number of people see this thread.

Signed up, just watched last nights episode with my DD (5) and very hard trying to explain why we throw so many dead fish back into sea! I sort of knew this happened but not to that extent! Truly shocking!

I thought this was dreadful, there has to be a better way - I was disappointed HFW didn't talk about the alternatives though and the minister was so wishy-washy vague "I want a better system" umm, yes and what are you going to do about it?

Just finished watching episode one and am completely aghast. What a waste! And I can't even see who benefits. Cod stocks must surely be increasing much more slowly than they would if large quantities weren't essentially being killed for no purpose.

The trouble with the label "sustainable" is that the CFP is meant to be just that, yet they are killing and dumping thousands of tons of fish every year.

This fishermen on the programme said one of the problems was that there was so much cod they couldn't help catching it. On one trawl of the net they had to thow away (already dead) more than three quarters of their catch because it was cod and pollock.

just signed up and Facebooked it, thanks for link Nigella.

my fishmonger thinks sustainability is a con so he is not much help in trying to choose fish. We have noticed you sometimes get coley and pollock if you buy basics range white fish from supermarkets - cheaper than cod or haddock, too. AFAIK they are fish we should be eating more of but the whole thing is so damn complicated (eg certain species are fine but only if caught in the right place using the right method) I am never certain I am doing it right.

I watched an old Rick Stein prog. and he said that by changing the size of the holes in their nets the fishermen could catch the right age and type of fish they needed (not rocket science is it?)

If you are all worried please look at the Marine Stewardship Council website: www.msc.org/. There is a list of fish that we can eat sustainably and a list of suppliers (M&S and Waitrose are the best) that only sell sustainably caught fish.

I really think that none of us should be eating cod or haddock any more. In the late 1980's/early 1990's fish stocks on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland collapsed. The area is highly regulated now but stocks still haven't recovered. This will happen the ocean over. If farmers desecrated the land in the same way that fisheries ploughed up the sea bed there would be a massive outcry. But it is all hidden conveniently away. I think that the Spanish are the worst offenders too. They have decimated fish stocks in their own waters so fish in our waters and due to the CFP (possibly the most insane piece of legislation ever) we can't do a thing about it.

it made me feel sick watching it. im not eating fisk anymore, actually made me want to cry. all those fish dieing for nothing.

have signed me and dp up

please sign

the saddest bit was in hastings where the fleet used to catch cod sustainably using wide-meshed nets, and are now not allowed to catch any at all, they have some massive quota for some kind of fish that isn't even in their fishing grounds and they end up catching a load of cod anyway and chucking it all away

madness

i liked the bit where they gave away part of their discard for one day

its criminal isn't it, when there are so many who are literally starving

and even in our rich country, many children living in poverty - to waste food like this is an outrage

perhaps the power of MN needs to get het up about this like the EE baby story!

Shall we start a campaign?
I've emailed my MP about it, someone else started a thread saying how they couldn't contact their MP, shall we start a campaign?

That's disgraceful !

But if the fishermen think they should only be fishing half as much as opposed to throwing away halfthe fish they catch why don't they make the decision to do three days a week or something ?

I didnt watch it btw, I will now though!

YANBU. There is simply no sense in throwing dead fish back into the sea. It's time the whole policy was reviewed.

YANBU to be upset

It was horrific to see all the fish being trown away dead.

On one boat, one catch they threw away enough fish to feed 2000 people, and they do that for 3 or 4 catches a day for a 5 day trip. That is enough fish to feed 30,000 people being thrown away by one boat alone for one trip.

And these fish are dead! Without the quotas, or with more sensible quotas, less fish would be killed not more.

Agree with ProfYaffle, yes it was horrifying to see, although I was already aware of the situation, but I would have liked more exploration of alternatives and solutions, rather than watching Hugh just contantly shaking his head, looking disappointed and saying the same things over and over again.

The second installment is tonight at 9pm.