In February Green Drinks Dublin heard Edward Fahy of www.eatenfishsoonforgotten.com talk about the EU's Common Fisheries Policy and the effect it is having on our Fish Stocks. Edward explained to us how fish quotas are regularly being assigned at higher than sustainable levels for political reasons. This is to suit the big fishing interests who dominate the fishing industry, and squeezes out smaller fishermen. As a result fish stocks are falling all across Europe.
However, creating sustainable fishing is complicated and not an easy matter to achieve. For instance, the well meaning policy of banning fishing discards now means that there is a market for non quota fish, and is actually encouraging the production of more 'discards' than previously existed. The current model of fisheries in Europe cannot continue, and will result in collapse in fish stocks, like cod in Newfoundland, if change does not occur. Ed was pessimistic that change will happen in time to prevent this, as progress is too slow. Altogether a sobering talk that brought home how short sighted our society is when it comes to managing nature.
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