Being a Greenpeace volunteer often means spending your 'spare' time asking people to sign things, running stalls at fairs and festivals, or writing to your MP/MEP. However, sometimes it involves something a little different that makes your world just that little bit odder. One example is the current campaign to reform the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and become a fisherman's friend, supporting sustainable producers.
I'd been at work all day while my local group in Southampton were running a stall at the Environmental Rock green/music fair. I knew that we had some new materials and a costume, and I agreed to collect them after work. However, when I turned up, I was a little surprised to be given a seven-and-a-half foot mackerel with the instruction not to bend it - interesting as it's longer than the inside of the car...
The mackerel (now imaginatively named 'Big Fish'), currently lives on the bed in our spare room and gets moved to wherever it is least inconvenient if we have guests. I've also got a large (and increasing) collection (shoal?) of signed - and often coloured-in - fish-shaped cards asking for the CFP to be reformed; there's been really good public support for this campaign, so eventually the box of blank cards should turn into a box of completed ones - if the weather's OK, we'll be out doing a 'Fish in the Park' event next week. Will Big Fish be there? Well, probably though it doesn't fit on the bus, and even our car only just holds it, and as for taking it into a pub or cafe afterwards, well, it's OK as there is a friendly cafe that's used to our occasional bouts of oddness in Greenpeace costumes. Still, at least being outdoors means I won't accidentally swipe anyone/thing while turning round - I think it needs one of those 'vehicle reversing' beepers when moving around in confined spaces.
Anyhow, that's probably enough about the joys of having stewardship of an oversized memoryfoam mackerel (if I owned a hair-dryer, I could re-straighten the tail!) - here is a collection of some of the many supportive messages from people about becoming a fisherman's friend, which after all is what this is all about...
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