The Executive Director and co-founder of the Blue Marine Foundation called the fishing industry “ecologically ignorant” and “disingenuous” in a speech at a parliamentary reception with MPs where he was promoting the launch of his new book “Rewilding the Sea”.
In recent weeks the Blue Marine Foundation has been accused of spreading misinformation about cod fishing in the North Sea, through their campaign “Bring Back British Cod”, but at the reception, which included Labour MPs Luke Pollard (a former shadow fisheries spokesperson), and Sarah Champion, along with Mark Spencer MP the current Fisheries Minister, and Secretary of State, Therese Coffey MP, the son of a farmer took several swings at the fishing industry.
The author, who made his name penning several environmental books like his present book, claimed that the UK fishing industry is fishing above scientific advice and said that the five native populations of cod are being “severely overfished”.
On this second aspect, he said: “We are getting wrong in investing in the health of the sea”.
He continued: “Fishing is not farming. Fishermen do not sow, they only reap”. And, as the son of a farmer, he knew “the only way to invest in a wild ecosystem is by leaving it alone for more of the time.”
On his third point, he said: “The fishing industry complains that they are having a third of their fishing grounds taken away by wind farms or marine protected areas. This is ecologically ignorant. It is also disingenuous. What will actually be happening in those areas is that we will be sowing fish and other species. Fishing won’t even be banned in these areas – just the most destructive method of fishing — trawling! The fact is that because of those protected areas and those wind farms, almost certainly there will be more fish to catch.”
He claimed that there has already been successful rewilding in Sussex Bay, Lyme Bay and the Dogger Bank, calling them “great British success stories”.