Did you know that up to 80% of European fish catches are juveniles, which have not had a chance to reproduce? You don't need university studies to know that this is self-destructive. It leaves too few big fertile fish in the water. So production goes down. Recovering resources will allow to increase catches on a robust basis.
What to do? and how?
Use a fish ruler to find out at which size the major fish species in your country have reproduced at least once.- This is how you can measure: place the fish straight on the stretched out ruler, putting the tip of the mouth in zero-position as shown here for cod in the North Sea using the 'Fisch-o-Meter'. Give the local name in different languages or, if you know, the scientific name, and get information by country, fishing region, of the minimum safe size of the whole fish, the fillet size, the headless size and much more. Click here to search.
- The German Consumer Protection Agency in Hamburg has run a successful campaign to this effect. Read more and search for 'Babies gehören nicht auf den Teller'.
- The Philippines, Senegal and Peru have launched fish rulers to empower citizens to help enforce sustainable fishing and consumption. Mundus maris has developed these concepts further for The Gambia, Senegal
- Young people in different parts of the world have been shocked to learn about this sad state of affairs and expressed their concern through art works. They want to make other people think and act as well.
- See examples in the exhibitions organised by Mundus maris.
Additional information can be found here.
