Catching on to TV chef’s fish fight

Arlene McCarthy

Brushing shoulders with celebrity chef and crusader Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was all in a day’s work for North-West Euro-MP Arlene McCarthy.

She met up with the TV star during his visit to Brussels and pledged her support to the chef’s high-profile Fish Fight campaign.

Stemming from the Channel 4 programme in January, Hugh is calling for reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy in a bid to put a stop to the “discard” process which often sees more than half the fish caught thrown back into the water dead.

Ms McCarthy, said: “Hugh’s Fish Fight campaign has caught the hearts and minds of people in the region and they have been writing to me to support the campaign.

“We have to ensure that Euro-MPs listen to people’s concerns about the loss of diversity in our seas and the terrible waste caused by current practices.

“We want to see a policy that boosts the fish in our seas and the local communities that depend on them.”

So far over 680,000 people have signed the fish-fight petition. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was in Brussels to launch the campaign website in 11 European languages, in a bid to spread the word and top a million signatures.

It comes as Euro-MPs backed a European Parliament declaration calling for an overhaul of the way fish stocks are managed.

The fisheries policy is due to be renegotiated next year.