The UK's marine reserves are nothing but paper parks

Introduction

Goodfish and the 'Coast Friendly' scheme are being established and developed by myself, Peter Currell, a chartered environmentalist, seeking to help conserve the coast by supporting and encouraging a better inshore sea fishery by providing information and promoting new ideas. I live close to the sea and have a great attraction to the coast, which is what drives this work (in my spare time) and the ideas found in the web site set up in March 2009.

So what is the problem

90% of European stocks are overfished, a third are beyond safe biological limits" (ie, the adult population is too depleted to provide replacement stock). Some fish stocks, such as cod, have been reduced to less than 10% of what they were 100 years ago. Almost all cod caught in the North Sea haven't had a chance to breed. An EU 'position paper' confesses that: "in many fisheries, we are fishing two or three times what fish stocks can sustain".

Both monitoring and enforcement of fish catch quotas have been poor, while big trawlers that catch more fish than are allowed, or the wrong species of fish, simply dump the excess at sea, mostly dead. Both reduce stocks further. The news articles maintained on the Welcome & News page provide much of the information explaining the problem and current changes happening.

The web site

The Goodfish web site is aiming to be a first stop shop for information to enable and encourage people to buy sustainable fish, to promote new ideas and share information generally about the coast and sea. This is Sussex biased at present to make it manageable, although the 'Coast Friendly' idea is potentially for anywhere. I have sought to include information on recipes, the fishery itself and the coast environment as these all relate to the inshore fishers. I will continue to explain the local fishing industry information as it is not well understood by the general public and is the fundamental issue for Goodfish. I need more information from fishers and fishmongers to work towards getting the facts right and the solutions acceptable.

I am also keen to provide sea angling and other coastal activity information, so this becomes a broad coastal / fish site in the long-term and encouraging all of these activities to be sustainable and supporting the local economy.

Coast Friendly

This idea has its own web site to explain it a bit further. I want to try to set this up to test out the potential for rewarding the most environmentally friendly fishers. These will be those whose methods are less damaging to the natural environment (mainly the sea bed and its inhabitants) and where unwanted bycatch is limited.

What will Goodfish try to do?

Goodfish seeks to enhance the coastal environment and peoples' enjoyment and understanding of it. Substantially this will involve encouraging sustainable fishing by supporting the Sussex Inshore day fishermen and fishmongers who's fish were caught using less damaging fishing methods. This will be done;

By developing clear factual information on this web site as a first stop shop for sustainable fish facts

By keeping up to date news links and providing Sussex fish and coast environment information

By creating a scheme to credit / promote individual businesses dealing in sustainable Sussex fish

By developing support / campaigning for better trawling controls for large vessels in Sussex

By keeping a list of where to purchase the most sustainable fish in Sussex

How is this site funded?

It is not funded by any source at present and so is sadly a cost to me. It is hoped to cover the running costs over time and initially the Amazon affiliate scheme is being piloted to provide a small fee for anything sold via the Goodfish web site. Eventually I hope to get other affiliate schemes linked into the site, but do not want to over do it!

I would also be pleased to hear from anyone who wants to sponsor a page or advertise relevant products and services! But if you want to help, please read on.

How is this web site doing?

This year, to 13th February 1045 visits have been
recorded on google analytics with a 10.33% bounce rate.
This is an exceptionally low rate and indicates good content.
The bounce rate as measured by google is the number
of visitors who leave your site after reading just one
page. 40% is considered very good in the industry.

Another positive fact is that the average time on this site
by those visitors is over 11 minutes.

The time on site and the bounce rate will change if the
numbers of visits increase significantly.

So far little has been done to promote this site so currently
this is just natural traffic. Once there are any significant links
with businesses, then marketing and promotion will be
considered.

TAKE ACTION FOR FISH SAKE

Buy local inshore
day caught fish

Avoid otter, beam and pair trawlers

Avoid fish breeding seasons

Try some alternative fish to help create new demand

Ask for MSC labelled fish

Look for Fish4Ever tinned fish

Buy cat food made from sustainable fish

Ask fish & chip shops to join the mackerel mission

Download the Fish Fight app

If your business uses locally caught fish, from small boats that do not beam, pair or otter trawl, then the 'Coast Friendly' Initiative may be for you! Click here to find out about the trial that you could be part of.

Support Goodfish

If you buy anything via this web site from Amazon or the fishing companies shown, a small commission will be earned by Goodfish. This will help to maintain this site and it will not cost you anything. Thanks for any support you can give.