Fishermen: BBC could sink our livelihood

Published on Monday 1 February 2010 21:53

BRITAIN'S two main fishermen's organisations and the country's principal trade body yesterday launched a blistering attack on a controversial BBC documentary on the fishing industry.

They claimed that the documentary – Britain's Really Disgusting Food: Fish – gave a totally inaccurate and damaging picture of the country's fishing industry.

Industry leaders warned that the "frivolous and scientifically inaccurate" programme may have seriously damaged the reputation of Britain's seafood industry and could lead to an unjustified cut in demand from consumers.

The documentary was originally shown on BBC3 but was repeated on BBC1 last Monday.

The hour-long programme featured cartoons of fishermen catching and killing whales and dolphins and focused on claims by Greenpeace that many of the stocks being caught by British fishermen are being fished towards extinction.

James Wood, the head of marketing communications for the Seafish Industry Authority, claimed yesterday that the programme contained a number of "wilful factual errors" that flew in the face of scientific evidence.

He states in a letter to the BBC: "We are complaining on behalf of Britain's fishermen and the seafood industry at the frivolous and scientifically inaccurate treatment given to the marine environment by this programme.

"We believe that it may cause serious damage to the reputation of the UK seafood industry and depress demand for a healthy source of food at a time when consumption of junk food continues to increase."

The letter highlighted the film's repeated use of the claim that "some scientists believe there will be no fish left in the sea in 50 years' time".

The scientist who published a paper positing this speculation in 2006 – Professor Boris Worm, of Dalhousie University, Canada – published a paper eight months ago rescinding the hypothesis.

Mr Wood said Seafish had also presented the BBC with scientific data the showed the world fish supply had been "boringly stable" for the last 35 years.

Mr Wood claims: "The BBC took note of all of these facts, and then chose to ignore them in favour of cheap sensationalism and the hyperbole of campaigning NGOs."

Bertie Armstrong, the chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, and Barrie Deas, the chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, joined in the attack.

In a joint statement they said: "This was an extremely damaging programme to the UK fishing industry where the true facts were simply ignored. It seems that the programme makers thought of a title and then made an episode to fit around their own agenda."

A spokeswoman for the production company behind the documentary said: "Britain's Really Disgusting Food: Fish gave a broad picture of some of the ethical issues involved in the global fishing industry, recognising that British consumers are likely to encounter fish from all over the world.

"The programme was not an in-depth examination of the British fishing industry."