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THE Prince of Wales has met members and supporters of the Marine Stewardship Council - and praised their work on supporting environmentally responsible and sustainable fishing.
Prince Charles invited them to reception at Clarence House to celebrate a decade of successful operation. Prior to that he met a number of senior executives from seafood and general food companies across the UK and Europe for a briefing on fish conservation and to review the pace at which the industry is moving towards a more sustainable future.
He told the MSC gathering that he had tried to raise the issue of fish stocks many years ago when few people had given much thought to the problem. But back then it was like the arguments which surrounded climate change in that hardly anyone wanted to listen.
The Prince said scientists were saying that if nations continued to fish without any care for fish stocks then the industry faced a "nightmare collapse" leading to even worse hunger problems among the poorer nations.
The chief executive of the MSC Rupert Howes said he was most grateful to The Prince for hosting the event and joining the MSC in congratulating leaders in the seafood industry and its supporters for their commitments to sustainability.
He added: “Transforming the global seafood market to a sustainable basis is a major, but achievable aim. It is one to which everyone, individually or corporately, can make a real contribution by making the most environmentally sound choices when harvesting or buying seafood."
Should fisheries be closed during breeding time to allow stocks to reach more sustainable levels?
