The Celtic League has campaigned for years against super trawlers plundering Atlantic waters. Not only do these super trawlers remove massive amounts of fish which necessitate local fishing fleets undertaking longer and more dangerous voyages in order to make a living, but the size of the nets used by super trawlers kill many dolphins, porpoises and other marine life.
Sometimes conservationists and other experts on wildlife disappoint in not wanting to ‘rock the boat’ in campaigning to stop environmental damage and the destruction of wildlife. Instead, the best that they seem to do is to just sit on their posteriors ‘tutting’ about it. One such example is the seeming lack of action by conservation bodies over this bycatch of cetaceans and other marine life by super trawlers.
A campaign by Change.org does seem to have had an effect, and tomorrow the EU Fisheries Commissioner is to host discussions on preventing dolphin and porpoise bycatch. We know that EU boats are not alone in causing this appalling destruction, but we hope that tomorrow’s discussions are fruitful. We know that large organisations are sometimes glacially slow in effecting change, but a stop to this destruction is long overdue.
https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-slaughter-of-…/u/27104036…
Allen Moore,
Mannin Branch Secretary, Celtic League (28th June 2020)
