An overwhelming majority of European consumers – in southern Europe more than 90 percent – want to see more sustainably caught products in the fish counters, a recent WWF poll shows.
Still, the survey in 14 countries performed by an independent research institute showed that few consumers felt they were provided sufficient information about where and how the fish on sale were caught – so they had a chance to make sure that the product did not come from overfished stocks or was fished with unsustainable methods.
Eighty-eight percent of the respondents said that they think it is indeed important that fish products on sale within the European Union come from non-overfished stocks. Perhaps most surprising was the overwhelming support in southern European countries with dominating fishing sectors in the Union:
In Portugal (92 percent), France (93 percent), Spain (91 percent), Italy (95 percent) and Belgium (91 percent) more than nine out of ten consumers asked said it is important that fish on sale comes from non-overfished sustainable stocks.
“Europeans are clearly fed up with the disastrous management of our fisheries. They want the EU to turn the trend of overfishing around and the reform of the CFP offers exactly that opportunity to Members of the European Parliament and to EU Governments.” said Louize Hill, Head of Fisheries and Marine at WWF’s European Policy Office.
“We cannot afford to continue wasting our precious marine resources in times of economic crisis. The 2012 CFP reform has to be the one that delivers change.”
Asked whether they though they had adequate information on to which extent the fish on sale comes from well-managed, sustainable sources, 72 percent of those polled said no.
The survey included 14,635 adults in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
In other reports this spring, consumers in both Spain and the UK have expressed doubts about the labelling of seafood in their stores.