Fishing

I don’t know what I expected notorious Spanish fishing barons to look like. Strapping and medallioned, with deep tans and fancy wrist watches? Or sinewy, wiry and sly? In any case, the four defendants (three men and one woman) looked like fairly normal folk, if a little perplexed by the throngs of local and national media wielding cameras and questions outside the Truro Courthouse in Cornwall.

Basic first aid tells you the most important thing to do is not cause any more harm: don’t make things worse. That makes sense, of course, but if you happen upon someone lying bleeding on the pavement, simply not kicking them on the way past isn’t really a good enough reaction.

I’ve been struggling for analogies to use, ways to try and explain just what is so bad about the recent EU Council ‘agreement’ on fish stocks.

Without fail, anytime I blog about more sustainable fish there will be at least one comment along the lines of ‘go vegan’ or ‘no one needs to eat fish anyway!’ That is of course fine and a viewpoint I (as a vegetarian of 25 years and counting) can certainly sympathise with.

This animation highlights some very fishy business we exposed in Spain recently. The case we uncovered, followed a nine-month investigation into the fishy dealings of “Toño”, one of Spain’s notorious fishing barons.   We exposed how his family network has amassed a list of convictions for illegal fishing and are continuing to operate around the world, putting vital fish stocks in danger.