Historical moment for the welfare of fish

International organisations merge to tackle issues of fish sentience and cruelty

The UK based organisation Fish Protection League (FPL) and the European marine conservation organisation The Black Fish officially merged today to join forces in campaigning for the protection of fish.

The FPL, formerly known as the Campaign for the Abolition of Angling (CAA) has been working for the welfare of fish and against fishing cruelty since 1981. It is the world's first and only organisation dedicated entirely to ending fish cruelty and to raise awareness about fish sentience. The Black Fish is both excited and humbled to be continuing the 31 years of work by the FPL, under its banner.

Wietse van der Werf, cofounder of The Black Fish: “We are very excited to be announcing this news today. Fish are the group of animals which are mostly overlooked in the sentience and cruelty debate. The reason this is a historical moment is that two organisation dedicated to this same principle of protecting fish, are now one. These are major issues which get relatively little attention and are difficult to gather public support for, so this new step is a big deal.”

“We are delighted to be joining forces with The Black Fish and taking the campaign in this positive new direction. By working together, we will become a powerful voice for fish, showing people across the globe that fish are sentient, intelligent creatures worthy of humanity’s collective concern.” – Spokes person, Fish Protection League

The Black Fish is working on a new publication, bringing together public opinion and the latest scientific research on fish sentience. The book is set to be published late 2012.

Explore over 30 years of fish activism history:

http://www.theblackfish.org/fpl

The Black Fish
e-mail: media _AT_ theblackfish.org
Homepage: http://www.theblackfish.org/fpl

Comments

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yes

24.02.2012 22:12

yes

anon
Homepage: http://www.theantifaschista.blogspot.com/

thanks for talking about this

25.02.2012 07:47

I didn't even know Black Fish existed, thanks for posting. I hate the way non-cuddly animals aren't seen as important or worthy of protecting from hurt.

anon

Lost the plot

25.02.2012 19:58

I strongly oppose angling! It's barbaric!

Whatever compels anyone to sit by a river all through the dead of night, in freezing cold conditions quite often? Have they lost the plot? Maybe they don't like home life. Or could it be they just have simpletons' minds and love yanking a sharp hook in to a poor fish's mouth.

Francis H. Giles

black fish

26.02.2012 14:30

is this what you mean by black fish

anon
Homepage: http://www.theantifaschista.blogspot.com/

City dwellers...and their silly ways!

27.02.2012 20:32

"I strongly oppose angling! It's barbaric!

Whatever compels anyone to sit by a river all through the dead of night, in freezing cold conditions quite often? Have they lost the plot? Maybe they don't like home life. Or could it be they just have simpletons' minds and love yanking a sharp hook in to a poor fish's mouth."

As ever idiocy reigns in the minds of the children.

Without anglers, much of Britain's waterways would be in a truly dire state. Anglers give an early warning sign when fish populations experience disease or pest infestation. Anglers also do a lot of work keeping water channels clear. Anglers due to their love of their pasttime have opened up more lakes and natural water courses for fish and other flora to thrive. Courses that would have gone to concrete or development.

Angling is one of the most popular past-times in the UK next to DIY and gardening and that, spread out across the country, has a HUGE effect. Without this volunteer army, the watercourse situation would be completely poisoned by now.

Natural environment for all sorts of flora and fauna is dissappearing fast due to excessive and uncontrolled development (which the above commentators have almost certainly done zero to arrest) and the angling community by its simple existance has reversed and undone a lot of that.

Without the angling community, there would far far fewer natural water courses in existance than there are right now. Fish populations would be a fraction of what they are right now due to undealt with disease and concreting of naturally occuring lakes.

So yes you can say its barbaric to stick a hook in a fishes mouth so angling should stop. I await with interest what you will be saying when the fish population in the UK completely collapses as a result of the banning of angling and the redundancy of one of the nations largest steward armies!

Pike