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YOUNG’S Seafood Limited, the UK fish supplier, welcomed last week’s debate in the House of Commons, Selfridge’s Project Ocean event, and designer Katharine Hamnett’s slogan t-shirts, which are raising awareness of fish sustainability issues.
The parliamentary debate, on reform of the Common Fisheries Policy 2012, was held to discuss a motion put forward by Zac Goldsmith MP and a number of other MPs. The motion, which passed, welcomed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight campaign and set out specific sustainability measures that must be included in the EU fisheries reforms in order for the UK Government to support them. This debate followed Zac Goldsmith MP’s Early Day Motion (EDM) in support of Fish Fight, which attracted 240 signatures from MPs, and is the second most supported EDM this session.
The Project Ocean event took place on 12th May 2011 in the Oxford Street branch of Selfridges, and is part of a five-week programme. The first talk in the series was chaired by Charles Clover, columnist for the Sunday Times, and panellists included celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the Food and Drink Federation, Jerry Percy of New Under Ten Fishermen's Association Ltd (NUTFA), and fashion designer Katharine Hamnett. The debate focused on how we can best prevent overfishing without destroying the livelihoods of those in the fishing industry.
Leendert den Hollander, Chief Executive of Young’s Seafood Limited, said: “Now is absolutely the right time to raise the issue of ensuring there will be ‘more fish in the sea’, as Katharine Hamnett does on her t-shirts, and to ensure that responsible fish sourcing is promoted. We’re committed to responsible fish procurement, and doing our bit to drive sustainable practice through the supply chain, as part of our Fish for Life programme.
“We welcome the debate in the House of Commons, the Selfridge’s Project Ocean event and other moves to try to tackle discards as we believe the practice is unacceptable. Hugh’s Fish Fight got more consumers talking about important sustainability issues – from discards to diversification – and we hope that these events have a similar impact. Having surveyed consumers after Fish Fight, we found that what people really want is a greater variety of ways to enjoy sustainably sourced fish, and we’re playing our part by encouraging consumers to diversify and try a wider selection of responsibly sourced species.”
Nigel Edwards of the Food and Drink Federation also welcomed the launch of Selfridges 'Project Ocean' – a campaign to encourage consumers to opt for sustainable fish.
Edwards said: “Discards are a direct result of regulatory failings with the CFP. Discarding is both a senseless waste of resources and a barrier to long term sustainability. We fully recognise that to bring an end to discards is not straightforward and will require a complex combination of regulatory reform, technical conservation measures and changed market conditions.
“We want to balance creating a demand for currently discarded species with the sustainable management of their stocks. We do not want to overexploit the underutilised.”
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