31 July 2012
One wonders how long the corporate types at Greenpeace took to settle on the campaign slogan “Be a fishermen’s friend”.
It sounds inclusive; supportive. But of course nothing is surer that is the opposite – divisive, and bad news for fishing – which, when all is said and done, is a commercial activity that kills fish, and is never going to be completely compatible with environmental purity.
One cannot deny that Greenpeace are good at what they do. The production values in the You Tube video The Last Fisherman are superb. The message is clear: the small-scale fleet faces catastrophe and its imminent demise is down to one single and simple reason: the “privatisation of the quota system” and the “4% share of the UK’s quota allocated to 77% of the fleet”.
But the Greenpeace goes further than the usual problems of media oversimplification and over-generalisation.
The problem lies in the lies; and the distortions and the selective misrepresentations.
- Any suggestion that the quota problems in the small scale fisheries are mainly limited to a few under-10 metre regionally specific fisheries– the South East and the Thames Estuary – is never mentioned; the implication is that this is a generalised problem and all small-scale fishermen share the same view
- Neither is it mentioned that, outside these few pockets, the overwhelming response from the small-scale fleet to a Defra consultation last summer was to keep the current quota management arrangements
- Nowhere does Greenpeace suggest that most of the UK quotas are caught in areas out of reach of inshore vessels, so the 4%/77% statistic is meaningless, except for its propaganda value
- No one would guess from the Greenpeace propaganda that 70% of the under-10 metre quota is caught by only 14% of the under-10m fleet and that many of the “super under-10s” can out-fish many over-10s in terms of sheer fishing capacity – the development of this part of the fleet is a fundamental reason why parts of the under-10m fleet faces problems today; Greenpeace relies on a simplistic good/bad dichotomy like cowboys with white and black hats.
- It is never mentioned that the main problem in the Eastern Channel has nothing to do with the UK domestic quota system but lies with the relative quota share of cod between France and the UK; if every tonne of UK cod quota was allocated to the under-10m fleet there would still be a quota shortage; is it honest to suppress that fact?
- Or to fail to mention that in many parts of the coast non-quota species make up the bulk of the catch and earnings of the small scale fleet
- Or that that the largest part of the small scale fleet catches high-value shellfish
And what has all this got to do with CFP reform anyway? If the problem (they say) is the UK quota system, CFP reform is rather beside the point, is it not? – other than as a media opportunity.
In fact the NFFO has tried to explain that the reasons underlying the problems facing some of the under-10m fleet are multi-layered and require more than divisive slogans to fix them. What is certain is that Greenpeace’s “problems” and “solutions” are beside the point.
Environmental Impact
We would be amongst the first to say that fishing does have an environmental impact and that the regulatory regime has been a shambles for the last two decades.
But we would also say that contrary to the current hysterical media stereotype, by comparison with other forms of food production, fishing is a relatively low impact economic activity. Furthermore, a fair audit of the progress that has been made by the UK fishing industry over the last decade in the areas of compliance, overcapacity, collaboration with fisheries scientists, and discard reduction, suggests that this is an industry striving valiantly to meet changing societal demands on the conditions under which fish should be caught.
Nutfa, for its own reasons, has hitched its wagon to the Greenpeace train. We are surprised and anxious because it adds a new level of separation between those who advocate division and those who think that the industry should sit down together and agree a way forward on undoubtedly complex issues.
We work on a weekly basis with other environmental NGOs with never a sighting of a Greenpeace type. When the media spotlight moves on so will Greenpeace and the industry will have to pick up the pieces of its divisive campaign.