Europe has recently been relaxing a ban on fishing with electricity. Since 2010, eighty-five Dutch supertrawlers have been equipped with electric pulse fishing gear, and twelve British ships have been licensed in the past few months alone.
These ships use a technique called pulse trawling, which uses electricity to shock flatfish and shrimp, forcing them to flip up into nets. This technique greatly increases the catch of these species.
We have no way of knowing whether this technique is safe for ocean communities long-term. The 97 licensed ships have free reign to fish across the southern North Sea. The European Commission justifies this by saying it's a trial for the purpose of scientific research, but it clearly benefits the fishing industry with no reasonable scientific benefits. Any "research" being done lacks control, and the fishing takes place over too broad of an area to draw valid conclusions.
Please sign the petition to urge the European Commission to place ocean communities over big business and reinstate their ban on fishing with electricity!
We, the undersigned, are concerned that Europe has been relaxing a ban on fishing with electricity.
We have no way of knowing whether the pulse trawling technique employed by the 97 licensed ships is safe for ocean communities long-term. We understand that these ships have free reign to fish across the southern North Sea. You justify this by saying it's a trial for the purpose of scientific research, but it clearly benefits the fishing industry with no reasonable scientific benefits. We believe any research being done lacks control, and the fishing takes place over too broad of an area to draw valid conclusions.
We respectfully urge you to place ocean communities over big business and reinstate your ban on fishing with electricity. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our petition.
