Hugh blamed for new law that could devastate fishing industry in Plymouth – lunacy and madness

Westcountry celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is being blamed for the new rules thanks to his televised Fish Fight campaign, which targets discards. At present fisherman have to throw back fish they don’t have a quota to catch, and the Fish Fight campaign has been working against that. The new rules mean they won’t be allowed to throw them back – or land them. Jim Portus, chief executive of the South West Fish Producers Organisation, said fishermen hate discards as it made a mockery of their hard work.  Read the rest here 10:05

One Response to Hugh blamed for new law that could devastate fishing industry in Plymouth – lunacy and madness

  1. DickyG says:

    That’s fishery management here in the U.S. as well: whoever has the greatest media coverage wins—no matter how ridiculous the faux-conservationist campaign happens to be. Commercial discards or by-catch are a function of abundant stocks managed under outdated and unnecessarily constrictive regulations. These disproportionate regulations, which actually have no connection to any scientific ocean reality concerning fish stock health; regulations which lead to fishermen being prevented from landing what is coming up in their nets, ironically, are germinated in the baseless hyperbole of these self-serving celebrity and non-government organization interventions. This is not fishery management; this is media-blitz marketing based on “if you say something often enough, many will begin to believe it” and Fudd’s First Law (Firesign Theatre c. 1972): “If you push something hard enough, it WILL fall over” i.e., the independent small boat fishing industry.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.