Environmental groups 'Deutsche Umwelthilfe' (DUH), Our Fish and Deepwave have joined forces to criticise politicians for their failure to stop overfishing, with DUH calling for a final end to overfishing as well as illegal fish dumping.
The groups set up a staged fish market, featuring empty stalls, to illustrate how the North Sea and Baltic Sea fishing industries could look like in the future.
The staging was influenced by the recent Warnemünde Herring Festival, which was canceled this year because there were not enough herrings in the sea.
Overfishing Concerns
"Overfishing is not just an economic problem, it also shows our totally wrong relationship with the oceans," explained Anna Groß, the CEO of the marine conservation Deepwave.
"We treat it as a resource to exploit and a waste disposal landfill. That is because fishing is covered by a policy that doesn't give our seas enough time to regenerate."
Moreover, 41% of fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic are overfished, including herring and cod in the Baltic Sea. Scientists from the International Council for Marine Research have recommend a zero quota for both populations this year.
"Despite the legal requirement to end overfishing by 2020, too many fishing quotas were set above the scientific recommendations for 2019," commented Sascha Müller-Kraenner, the DUH's managing director, who called for an immediate halt to catches of threatened fish species.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Jana Zimmermann. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
