17 Jan 2008 - Destructive
fishing has many critics, with the newest
being an animated fish puppet emerging from
an icebox to push the virtues of sustainably
caught seafood.
Stinky Fish, the brainchild
of WWF’s International Marine Programme
and viral movie makers, Free Range Studios,
is the star of a new consumer education
and information website which goes live
today.
Stinky, performing as
the star of his own video on the site, on
Facebook or You Tube, emerges unexpectedly
from his icebox to voxpop shop-owners and
restauranteurs on where their fish came
from and tell diners and shoppers to avoid
“stinky fish”.
Stinky fish, explains
Stinky Fish, are those caught from over-exploited
fish populations or caught with the use
of destructive fishing methods and technologies.
“You've seen pictures of the living wonders
of the deep; you'd be appalled to see a
trawler dragging a net the size of a football
field right through it,” says Stinky.
“We’ve aimed Stinky
Fish mainly at fish buyers and eaters with
the underlying message that your seafood
spread is going to be all the more satisfying
if you buy and eat with a conscience” said
Sarah Bladen of WWF’s International Marine
Programme. Or, in the cartoon chatter that
Stinky Fish uses: “It's time to slap your
appetites into line with your ethics.”
But there is more than
admonishment. Stinky Fish has a six step
plan for fish consumers to do just that.
Stinky Fish reserves his approval for fish
products carrying the ecolabel of the Marine
Stewardship Council (MSC) and the plan revolves
around preferring MSC -labelled seafood,
asking retailers and restaurateurs for sustainable
fish and generally adding in small personal
ways to the overall consumer demand for
seafood that doesn’t cost the seas.
Consumers are advised
to just stay away from some seafood where
the populations are so depleted, the fishing
methods so destructive or the task of differentiating
the sustainable from the unsustainable is
impossible. The list includes the once but
no longer plentiful Atlantic cod, overfished
Atlantic bluefin tuna, swordfish from areas
still using banned driftnets, and orange
roughy driven into depletion almost as soon
as it was discovered just a couple of decades
ago.
Stinky’s Sustainable
Seafood Shopping Survey provides a mechanism
for aware consumers to start reinforcing
the message for seafood providers. Returning
the survey to Stinky Fish and his willing
WWF analysts will also add to knowledge
of consumer level retailing practice.
