OUR FISH

The ocean is incredible. It is the source of all life on earth and is the most significant contributor to planetary health - we owe it our every second breath. It doesn’t stop there: it has absorbed over 90 percent of humandriven atmospheric warming and soaks up a third of the CO2 we emit. If it were not for its cooling effect, the planet would be a staggering 36 C˚ warmer! So even if you don’t eat fish or live by the ocean, we all have a stake in a planetary system which sustains human life.

But rather than treating it as the life-giving source that it is, we are subjecting it to multiple stressors: plastic and toxic pollution, destructive fishing and climate change. And sustained destructive fishing has impacted marine biodiversity and its capacity to mitigate climate change. But as the inspiring marine biologist and oceanographer Sylvia Earle has said, unlike any other time in history we have the power of knowledge – knowledge of the destruction we are responsible for, but also the power of knowing what can be done. Our Fish campaigns for incorporating that knowledge into EU (including Irish) fisheries management in order to end overfishing and restore ocean health. We have been working with a team of global scientists on a series of research papers exploring how fisheries management can increase ocean resilience and its capacity to mitigate the impact of climate change. This work is crucial to understanding and advocating for the restoration of fish populations so that they can fulfil their role in cycling and sequestering more carbon, as well as decreasing direct emissions from fishing vessels. The papers will be published in the coming weeks and be presented during

Ocean ClimateREBECCA HUBBARD AND Save the to save the

MIKE WALKER, OUR FISH the Lisbon UN Ocean Conference in late June. By collaborating with organisations and scientists across the EU and beyond, and by deploying robust evidence, Our Fish is calling for an end to EU overfishing as a rapid, achievable and effective way of addressing the biodiversity and climate crisis. Our Fish often uses bold and provocative messaging, or employs colourful and sometimes noisy street theatre to catch attention. We’ve worked with renowned street artists and flamenco dancers; we’ve had a string quartet and an opera singer pull on the heart-strings of ministers outside EU fisheries meetings, and we’ve even summoned the god of the ocean to demand an end to overfishing! On a quieter note, we also run expert briefings and webinars so the media, policymakers and politicians better understand the issues and solutions. During Ireland’s 2013 Presidency, the EU committed to end overfishing by 2015 and by 2020 at the latest. We missed that commitment "WE’VE HAD A STRING and over 40 per cent of fish populations in the QUARTET AND AN OPERA SINGER PULL ON THE HEART-STRINGS OF North-East Atlantic are still subject to overfishing, 84 percent of European waters are considered ‘problem areas’, and thousands of sensitive marine animals such as dolphins are

MINISTERS OUTSIDE EU still dying each year as bycatch.

FISHERIES MEETINGS, The EU fishing fleet has too many destructive AND WE’VE EVEN bottom trawlers, subsidised by public money

SUMMONED THE GOD OF THE OCEAN TO DEMAND AN END TO (through fuel tax exemptions and more) to take too many fish. This is down to insufficient political oversight and a perception that fisheries management is a marginal issue, with industry OVERFISHING!" interests exercising disproportionate political influence. Our Fish is working to shift the discussion away from late-night haggling between fisheries ministers over fishing quotas, to a higher-level discussion about the critical role of a healthy ocean to climate action, and the need for ecosystem-based management that supports a just transition to low-impact fishing. The European Commission has committed to publishing an Ocean Action Plan as part of its

 OurFish mural in Vilnius, Lithuania

Biodiversity Strategy and a review of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) later this year. We are pushing for both to acknowledge and incorporate measures which recognise the role fisheries management plays in the ocean’s capacity to respond to climate change. We are living in truly scary and harrowing times. But we have the power of knowledge, and knowledge empowers care. And we do care; while the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report includes an overwhelming list of measures that we need to address in order to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, more careful fisheries management is a no-brainer, thanks to the positive and near-immediate impact it would have. EU fishing member states, including - and led by - Ireland, can easily transition to lowimpact, low-carbon fishing, because we know how: follow scientific advice when setting fishing limits, prioritise access to low-impact fishers, phase-out destructive fuel-intensive bottom trawling, remove fuel tax subsidies in the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive, and invest in decarbonising the fleet.

Ireland is a pioneering island state, with a history of care but also of disproportionate influence in Brussels. So now is the time for Ireland to act on what we know and become a champion of ocean climate solutions. "BUT WE HAVE THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE, AND KNOWLEDGE EMPOWERS CARE".