Artisanal fishermen in the Mediterranean are reaching out via social networking sites to get their messages across.
They say that despite their efforts to work toward sustainability, the European Commission is moving in the wrong direction, beginning with transferrable fishing quotas, lack of stakeholder involvement in management and the commercial use of juvenile fish.
Recently, at a meeting it organized, the MedPan North project used Twitter to communicate its message to European Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki. The message read, “FISHGREEN! We fish in a sustainable way!” It included photos from the Torre Guaceto marine reserve.
And Damanaki heard the message. Three replies appeared on the commissioner’s Twitter page after the original post.
“We want to thank Commissioner Damanaki first of all for having replied to us in such a brief time and for having paid attention,” said Miquel Sacanell, Spanish representative of the Mediterranean Platform of Artisanal Fishers.
“We represent the ‘other half’ of the fisheries workforce in the Mediterranean Sea. We use selective fishing methods and we have a long-term collaboration with marine protected areas which brings benefits and increasingly positive results to everyone. We sincerely hope that the ‘virtual’ contact we have made with Commissioner Damanaki will lead to a face-to-face meeting in one of the areas where we work,” added Christian Decugis, French representative of the organization.
