03 June 2001 - Keith Taylor, Green MEP for South East England met with celebrity chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall earlier this week when Hugh took his ‘Fish Fight’ (1) campaign to the European Parliament. Having secured over 700,000 supporters in the UK, Hugh is now taking his Fish Fight campaign around Europe. Keith Taylor is a strong supporter of the campaign which aims to bring about an end to the wasteful and unethical discarding of dead fish and overfishing.

Keith wants to ensure that Europe’s fisheries policy is changed so that there are more fish in the sea and more secure jobs for fishermen in the South East. According to the European Commission up to 80% of fisheries are currently being managed unsustainably and major changes are to be proposed later this year.

EU Fisheries Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, also joined Hugh in Brussels and pronounced the EU’s current fishing policy ‘unethical’. She has previously announced that she intends to try and ban the wasteful practice of discarding dead fish into the sea when quotas have been exceeded.

In parliament Keith Taylor has recently put his name to a formal declaration that calls for a major overhaul of the way European countries manage fish stocks.

Keith said: “It’s fantastic that Hugh’s campaign has brought the current fishing rules, which result in a huge amount of fish being wasted, to the public’s attention. Europe’s seas are capable of supporting many more fish than now exist, but overfishing is a major threat. People have rightly been outraged by the waste which currently takes place.

He continued: “We’re catching tomorrow’s fish today and so urgent changes are needed to ensure that people still have fish on the table in 30 years’ time. If we fail to take action we risk emptying the seas and betraying future generations. Ahead of these important decisions I will be making the point that we need to ensure that we rebuild fish stocks and secure the long-term future of fishing off the South coast.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The picture shows Keith Taylor MEP with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall outside the European Parliament building in Brussels.

1. To find out more about the Fish Fight campaign see www.fishfight.net