With EU fisheries ministers gathering in Brussels to take part in the 2018 fishing quota negotiations, another group of U.K. actors and celebrities have joined the Fishlove campaign that is calling for an end to overfishing by appearing naked with fish from European seas.
Posing with a blonde ray, which Fishlove cites as an example of a species that is caught and discarded as by-catch, Oscar nominee and Harry Potter star, Imelda Staunton, said, “It breaks my heart to think about what we are doing to our seas through overfishing, especially when you realise how easy the solution is.
“All it needs is for our politicians to have the courage to follow the scientific advice, and our seas will spring back to health and life for the benefit of all."
Fisheries ministers are also set to discuss a ban on fishing for adult eels – listed as “critically endangered” by the IUCN. Fishlove highlighted that with less than 2 percent of its original population left, European eels have undergone such a dramatic decline that scientists have called for a complete ban for all fisheries and to reduce all human induced mortality to zero.
Photographed with a European eel, actress and director Florence Keith-Roach, said, “98.4 percent of the European eel population is already gone. Continuing to fish for them is like hunting pandas.
“EU member states must help save this species from extinction by supporting a ban on eel fishing in European seas.”
Fishlove was set up in 2009 by Nicholas Röhl, co-owner of Japanese restaurant Moshimo, and actress Greta Scacchi to raise awareness of the unsustainable fishing practices. Since then, the campaign has featured images of Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Michael Gambon, Sir Richard Branson, Dame Judi Dench, Mark Rylance and Helena Bonham-Carter.
