Prince fears for future of fish and chips
By Lewis Smith
May 08 2012 Lewis Smith
Britain’s tradition of fish and chips is under threat unless the seas are given greater protection, The Prince of Wales has warned.
Overfishing has emptied the seas of fish so dramatically that he believes “iconic national dish”, along with food supplies for millions of people around the world, is under threat.
Prince Charles, speaking at the World Fisheries Congress in Edinburgh, warned that failure to ensure the seas are filled with healthy stocks of fish will threaten global food security and could lead to wars starting over fishing rights.
“If fish stocks fail, then the social and economic consequences will be dire,” he said. “Just think of all those thousands of coastal communities in Africa and around the world whose livelihoods and futures depend on fish – where will they go; what will they do? How would escalating conflict over scarce resources be contained? These questions alone must surely concentrate our minds.
“Fish and chips are a part of British culture, one of our iconic national dishes, but I wonder if it is an aspect of our national life that we can safely say can be sustained indefinitely?
“The simple fact is that fish and chip shops rely on there being plenty more fish in the sea, and that is only going to be the case if we take care of fish stocks now and plan for them to be there long into the future.”
Global food security was at the heart of his warning about fish and chips and his International Sustainability Unit has now launched a joint declaration with 120 other organisations demanding international action to protect marine fisheries.
The Joint Declaration for Action on Wild Marine Fisheries notes that about a third of fisheries have collapsed or are in decline and that their restoration is both vital and possible.
It urges: “Sustainable fisheries are profitable fisheries in which good management is rewarded by good livelihoods, dignified employment and strong communities. That is why sound economics must underpin sustainable fishing. Sound economics must create positive incentives for robust management so as to achieve long-term sustainability while at the same time making short-term unsustainable practices less attractive.”
Signatories include supermarkets, fish suppliers, wildlife and conservations groups, and fishermen’s groups. Among them are are M&S, Sainsbury, the Marine Conservation Society, the Marine tewardship Council, Young’s Seafood, Waitrose, WWF, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Seafish, the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, and Selfridges.
In his speech in Edinburgh the prince emphasised the importance of food security: “With fewer fish, not only are export earnings dented, food security becomes a real issue too. One recent study concluded that if fisheries had not been so over-exploited in recent decades, then in 2000 approximately twenty million people could have avoided malnourishment. That was twelve years ago and I fear that if that number was recalculated for today it would be even bigger.”
Prince Charles highlighted a lack of knowledge about fish stocks as one of the key obstacles to improving them. Only 10 per cent of the world’s fisheries, he said, have been scientifically assessed on their health and size.
He told the Congress: “We need much better information and therefore better methods of collecting the data so that we can take the right steps to ensure stocks remain healthy in the long term. With good information we will be better able to take more informed decisions and manage the risks more effectively.”
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