“We need to draw people’s attention to this scandalous waste”

Thi is the latest move from HFW and his discards campaign -  fishermen will need to make sure that while there may be consensus over stopping discards the means by which new measures are implemented will be crucial - and potentially damaging to many.

Quoted directly from a re-vamped FishFight web site that is now in 11 languages: "Discarding is a scandalous waste of a valuable and limited food resource. Everyone in Europe needs to get involved to end the practice". The Europe-wide Fish Fight campaign kicks off today with a grand event outside the EU Parliament Building in Brussels.

Why is Fish Fight launching a European Campaign?

I think the issue of discard is now very much on the public agenda in the UK. It’s been debated in Parliament and our Government has now passed a motion committing to help end the practice. There’s no doubt that this is the result of the mounting public awareness that followed directly from the Fish Fight series on Channel 4, and the accompanying campaign.

But in other European countries the problem is still not widely understood, or even known about. We need key public figures in those countries to take up the campaign and draw people’s attention to this scandalous waste of a valuable and limited food resource. That’s why we’re launching our campaign across Europe and launching websites in eleven other languages across Europe; French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Swedish, Flemish, Greek, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese.

On Tuesday May 31st Fish Fight Europe will kick off with a grand event outside the EU Parliament Building in Brussels. We really hope to see as many people as possible down there. All details can be found below. The future of all European fish stocks is at stake, so everyone in Europe who would like their children and grandchildren to eat this great food needs to get involved.


Hugh Fearnley -Whittingstall