What shall we do with the broken sea laws? Early in the morning”. Can you see what we’ve done there?
I have been unable to shake the tune to “what shall we do with a drunken sailor” out of my head for the last month. It’s been driving me and anyone within three metres of my desk, a bit mad. And the reason - we’ve been producing what we think is.. drum roll - the first ever sea shanty petition to Government.
This year we’re teaming up with local sustainable fishermen around the country, to help them change the law and get sustainable fishermen a fair catch – with our new campaign, Be a fisherman’s friend.
European fishing laws favour the most powerful parts of the fishing industry, which have the worst environmental impact. They also shut out those fishermen who have been fishing responsibly for generations. Many of these sustainable fishermen are at breaking point, due to the current restrictions.
We wanted to produce a really unique and powerful message to the fisheries minister, Richard Benyon to get him to do the right thing and protect the health of our seas, by supporting sustainable fishing practices. And who better to ask to represent local, small-scale fishermen in our singing petition, than the UK’s top- ten, sea shanty band the Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends.
The band (two of whom are full-time, two part-time fishermen), who feature on the same record label as Lady Gaga, recorded the politically charged-up sea shanty and also starred in the video, which was shot over two days in Port Isaac.
Jon Cleave (pictured above 2nd from right), one of the band, said: “We’re supporting the campaign because it is a great chance to make a difference to something that affects not just our community here in Port Isaac but the whole of the UK”.
His band mate, Jeremy Brown (far right of photo) is a full-time fisherman and explained why this issue is important to their community, “You don’t want to kill off your livelihood. Many of us are carrying on where our fathers and grandfathers left off and we're now passing it on to our children. We’ve got to look after what we’ve got...”
As well as involving the fishermen, we also wanted to make the people who signed the petition feel part of the sea shanty’s message to the fisheries minister, so we made the video as personalised as possible. I’m not going to give too much away, you’ll have to create your own sea shanty on Facebook to see where your cameo will appear!
And don’t worry if you’re not on Facebook, you can still send our sea shanty petition to Richard Benyon in the banner at the top of this page.
It might be an unusual form of petition, but it still comes with a serious message. Richard Benyon – help change the laws that threaten our seas and our sustainable fishermen.
So far, we’ve made 150 new fisherman’s friends - not bad for the first day of the campaign. Hooray and up we’re rising! Hooray up we’re rising. Hooray up we’re rising. Early in the morning…
