You may have seen information about the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and our campaign to have it reformed. Currently the CFP makes overfishing worse by ignoring scientific evidence, subsidising an excessively large fishing fleet and failing to give enough weight to environmental concerns. Although the CFP works at the European scale, this is a global problem. In the UK, one key thing we need to do is make David Cameron aware of problems with the CFP and support its reform - as promised by his own Fisheries Minister Richard Beynon. You can take action online to nudge David Cameron in the right direction by signing our petition. We're also taking this message out to members of the public - in the High Street, at green fairs, and all sorts of events and locations - to show that there is support for CFP reform and make sure that Cameron doesn't forget about it. Our campaign against destructive fishing practices went well this year with all the UK's major brands pledging to abandon the use of FADs etc - now we need to ensure fisheries policy follows suit.
With this in mind, today we were at the Southampton University ''Green Thursday' event, asking people to write to Cameron (yes, real hand-written letters!) reminding him how the CFP needs to be reformed. Here are some examples of what was written:
"...we need to set a safe, sustainable quota to prevent the fish stocks from collapsing."
"You pledged for this government to be the greenest ever, so please respect that."
"Stop putting profit first."
"Follow scientific advice: on average, quotas are set 47% above the levels recommended by the EU's own fisheries scientists."
"Please do something to conserve the ocean's fish. I don't want to see fish stocks extinct in my lifetime."
"Fishing, like many other resources, has long been considered inexhaustible. You only need to watch the film 'The End of the Line' to see this simply isn't the case."
"Adopting a long term view [...] to avoid collapses both in biodiversity and industry."
Thanks to everyone who has written one of these letters so far - don't forget that there is also the petition mentioned above, as well as information about sustainable seafood and what to eat, plus Marine Reserves and our 'Defending Oceans' campaign as a whole. Get informed and get active - marine life will thank you for it!
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