Our campaign to reform the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has started swimmingly (ho ho) - the Southampton part of it was launched at Environmental Rock on May 12th, yesterday we took our mobile stall to the Climate Jobs Caravan, and on June 8th we'll be at the city council's Eco-fair in the Central Library - lots of kids come to that one, so lots of coloured pencils needed, and I suspect the Big Fish will be popular!
Seriously though, this is a huge campaign - the CFP is full of massive flaws that lead to destructive and excessive fishing practices. You can read more here, but just some of the problems include subsidies leading to over-sized industrial fishing fleets that destroy more sustainable fisheries and their associated livelihoods, quotas based on political expediency and commercial greed rather than science and sustainability, fleets heading out of European waters to plunder fisheries off the African coast, and underlying it all a behind-closed-doors decision-making process that needs to be brought out into the open and made transparent. Just one aspect of this is the need to investigate the murky and corrupt world of Spanish fisheries subsidies - you can nudge our fisheries minister to push for this.
This is why, along with many other Greenpeace groups, we'll be campaigning long and hard on this - the CFP must be reformed despite opposition from some parts of Europe and the fishing industry. So, why not be a friend to the fish - and in the long-term the fishermen - get in touch and get active!
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