tagged w/ Fish stocks
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UK supermarkets are stepping up their efforts to encourage shoppers to buy fish from sustainable sources in a fresh attempt to alleviate pressure on threatened stocks.
Currently 80% of fish bought by British consumers is one of the 'Big Five' staples – cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns. But experts predict that some popular species could be extinct in the wild by 2050.
On Friday Sainsbury's – the UK's largest retailer of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fish and seafood products – will offer customers asking for one of the 'Big Five' an alternative, lesser known species to try out free.
Suppliers will largely bear the cost of the drive to encourage shoppers to broaden their fish repertoire and try out little-known but sustainable species – coley, pouting and megrim, rainbow trout and mackerel. Shoppers will be targeted at the chain's 387 UK stores with fresh fish counters through the new 'Switch the Fish' campaign which will also feature regional roadshows and recipes.
Sales of "alternative" species of fish and seafood soared after being championed in Channel 4's Fish Fight campaign – led by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – which launched in January. Initial supermarket sales figures suggested consumers were favouring coley, dab, mussels, squid and sardines over the salmon, cod and tuna in the TV programmes, which highlighted the wasteful use of "discard" in fishing practices while encouraging shoppers to take the pressure off popular fish stocks by being more adventurous in what they eat.
Yet new research carried out by YouGov for Sainsbury's and publishedon Monday shows that shoppers remain set in their ways. Nearly half (41%) of Britons eat cod at least once a month while a fifth of people eat tuna at least once a week. At the same time, 84% of Britons have never even tried megrim while 82% have never eaten pouting. Some 43% of fish eaters are put off trying a different type of fish if they were unsure about its taste, while 31% of people admit they would not try a new fish if they did not know how to cook it.
Supermarkets came under strong criticism last month from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), which said they should be doing more to help the environment and boost dwindling fish stocks by helping shoppers to make the right choices.
Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer is to use the profits from its 5p food carrier bag charge to finance its 'Forever Fish' campaign starting later this month, which will promote the use of sustainable fish not only in fresh products but also in ready meals, takeaway and frozen foods. Money will also go to the environmental charity WWF to help clean up beaches and support threatened species such as turtles and dolphins.
Marc Bolland, M&S chief executive, said: "We will work together with our customers, our people and their children to promote a healthy future for our beaches, seas and fish. Forever Fish involves schools, charities, fishermen and fisheries so we can all enjoy cleaner beaches, more sustainable fishing and healthy fish."
Sainsbury's move is backed by the government and chef Jamie Oliver. Richard Benyon, the fisheries minister, said: "This is exactly the sort of thing we've been working hard for in government – sustainable fish stocks and the conservation of our precious marine environment for future generations.
"If more people start to choose a wider variety of fish, this will help in our battle to end the terrible waste of millions of edible fish being thrown back into the sea dead because of an outdated system."
Oliver, who took part in the Fish Fight campaign, added: "Earlier this year I joined the debate to encourage people to try new, less loved fish, which had a great response."UK supermarkets are stepping up their efforts to encourage shoppers to buy fish from... more
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pdy
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added this
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8 months ago
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Over-fishing means UK trawlers have to work 17 times as hard for the same fish catch as 120 years ago, a study shows.
link :Over-fishing means UK trawlers have to work 17 times as hard for the same fish catch... more
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suzane
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added this
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1 year ago
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THIS little island doesn't look like much. It's a slab of rock not even half a hectare big, packed with rusty metal shacks, garbage, fishermen and squads of prostitutes - essentially a micro-slum bathing in the middle of Africa's greatest lake.
But Migingo island lies along the disputed watery border between Kenya and Uganda, and politicians have even threatened to go to war over it.
The reason? Fish. Lots of them, but maybe not enough. The island is an angler's paradise, surrounded by schools of tasty - and exportable - Nile perch. But Lake Victoria, one of the world's biggest bodies of fresh water, which 30 million impoverished Africans depend on for their survival, may be running out of these fish.
According to a recent study, Nile perch stocks are down by nearly 70 per cent.
But there may be an even bigger issue here - the rapidly receding lake itself. Water levels have dropped nearly a metre in the past 10 years and algae blooms are choking the fish.
This is irrefutable evidence, environmentalists say, of climate change, overpopulation, pollution, deforestation and other modern ills coming to a head in a part of Africa unprepared to deal with the problems.
At a recent rugby match between Kenya and Uganda, Kenyan fans chanted: ''Migingo, united, can never be defeated.''
In April, Kenyan hooligans ripped up the railway line to Uganda. Fishermen on Migingo say that the Ugandan police prowling the island have been dishing out beatings - and worse, stealing their catches.
The dispute heated up this year when Uganda sent soldiers to claim the island. The Ugandans even planted a flag.
The Ugandan Government claims that Migingo is in Ugandan waters and that it is illegal for Kenyans to fish there.
Each year, Uganda earns more than $A120.2 million exporting Nile perch, though overfishing and environmental mismanagement are imperilling that trade.
end of excerptTHIS little island doesn't look like much. It's a slab of rock not even half... more
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A coalition of conservation groups and a leading fisheries scientist have accused Japan of damaging the fisheries interests of poorer countries.
They say Japan promotes the argument that whales are responsible for declining fish stocks in order to boost support for whale hunting. They say this stops poor countries from focussing on real causes of decline.
A spokesman for Japan's whale research institution described the accusation as "absurd and irresponsible".
The groups involved presented their conclusions on the sidelines of the International Whaling Commission.
Daniel Pauly, director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre, said there was abundant evidence that whales are not behind the decline in fish stocks.
"Blaming whales is an issue that is not only false - whales are no more responsible than the Martians - but which prevents the very small resources of West African countries from being devoted to understanding the real reasons why their fisheries are declining," he said.
A coalition of conservation groups and a leading fisheries scientist have accused... more
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And finally bring back respect for the Native American tribes of California and Oregon as well as ending the destruction of salmon stocks and the poisoning of the Klamath Basin.And finally bring back respect for the Native American tribes of California and Oregon... more
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