"Andrew Hammond, a Royal Mail spokesperson, added: “With the majority of the world’s fish stocks currently fully-exploited or over-exploited this is a key issue of concern. We hope this stamp issue goes some way to helping people make informed choices about sustainability and contribute to the discussion about the conservation of UK fish stocks.”
Alongside the new stamps, Royal Mail will be releasing the findings from research to understand the attitudes and gauge the knowledge of sustainable fishing amongst the British public."
Quite how the Royal Mail thinks a set of stamps will inform - as in 'educate' - a largely ignorant public (of the true nature of fish stocks and fish stocks assessment) must be beyond the ken of most fishermen in the UK. In the minds of most people, stamps are primarily used to indicate that the correct revenue has been paid in order for the Royal Mail to deliver items for postage - not to reliably indicate whether or not that fish supper they were just about to purchase is from sustainable stocks or not - and since when did anyone in the UK shop for sturgeon or wolffish? Neither Tesco, Morrisons, Lidl, Sainsburys, Asda, M&S or the good old Co-operative offer either of these fish on their fish counters within easy reach of Newlyn - the port that lands the widest variety of fish in the UK on a regular basis bar none!
Barrie Deas, @NFFO_UK chief exec of the National Fishermen's Federation was incensed by the stamp issue - and rightly so as the organisation was not even contacted by the Royal mail or the group tasked with coming up with selecting and designing the stamps - good to see the 'Royal' warrant applied so vigorously in support of our British fishing industry - sadly, even more ironic given their role on this historic day 60 years on from D-Day.
The newly privatised company said the stamps were issued to celebrate, “the beauty of marine fish as well as providing guidance and encouragement to consumers on how to conserve UK fisheries”
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| The dreary dab |
